Determined: Life Without Free Will by Robert Sapolsky. He's a Stanford biologist/neuroscientist. You may have come across lectures from his class on Human Behavioral Biology which is on Youtube for free and highly recommended. The book basically lays out his argument that our actions are entirely the result of a deterministic combination of our genes, chemicals during fetal development, epigenetic factors during childhood and adolescence, brain trauma, diet, sleep, recent stress exposure, etc. Much of it motivated by his work as an expert witness in criminal trials, and concluding with his take on the "now what?" question on the moral/ethical implications of deciding that we don't really have as much (or any) control over our actions as we like to imagine.
Typographic jacket · original cover not fetched
FROM THE SHARED SHELF · 2006–2026 SAMPLE
Determined: Life Without Free Will
1 reader recommends it across 1 discussion
Topics are model-inferred labels.
Keep it on your reading list
THE WORD OF MOUTH
What made it worth passing on?
Original Hacker News comments, in the readers’ own words.