Could it be that mankind is no more than biological machines?   Are we simply products of complex chemistry that produce complex results; hardwired and mechanical?

Science answers this question with a resounding “yes” followed by a rebuking, “get over it”  because the truth is that world is made of matter and we are no different.  We are governed by the laws of nature and our behaviors reflect of these laws.  We are simply more complex.

(In fact, studying behavioral biology at the University of Oregon.  I was repetitively assured that man follows the same evolutionary and behavior rules as do all organisms.  However, we rarely studied human behavior because it was “too complicated” or exclusive to psychology courses.)

Yet, each person has this deep rooted inclination that the real answer might not be quite so simple; that there is something more to humanity than chemical cogs and wheels.  Religion, mysticism and metaphysical research have tried to explain these inclinations along with some of the outlying exceptions found in humanity that defy natural law.

The answer may be found in matter itself.  Matter has a great publicist but it is not at all what the public perceives it to be.

Thought of as a physical and resolute entity, matter is the name for the stuff that stuff is made out of.  However, modern science has revealed that matter is not really made of matter (as we know it) at all…….

Huh?…… Yep, that is to say that matter is most definitely not solid or definite.

Matter at subatomic levels is scientifically described as clouds of probability, or quantum foam, or whatever word scientists want to make up to describe a entity that they have no clue how to describe non-mathematically.  (I hope you find this as disturbing as I do.)

But, all scientific evidence points to this being the case.  And it most likely is…

This uncertainty of matter is not due to a lack in computational power or scientific prowess, but is actually a principle of matter called the Heisenburg uncertainty principle.

Simply put, matter at the smallest scales is a “probability that a interaction will occur”.   On large scales, these probabilities even out enough to allow us to make sound predictions and even have certainty in how matter will behave.

But hidden in matter still lurks that monster of uncertainty which might give humanity some hope that their minds are not machines.

So at the very least; if humanity is simply a coalition of meat machines, our behavior is very hard to predict.