At the end of Chapter 4, when Billy has been abducted by aliens, we uncover a foreign perspective: that of an alien who has spent his entire existence studying the planet Earth from afar. In one such instance, a Tralfamadorian tells Billy how well traveled he is. "I've visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will" (86).
The alien's observation caught my attention because I, living on Earth, have always taken free will for granted. As people on Earth we cannot be completely free with our actions. We must be aware of the potential consequences. However, the idea that we are the only planet known to the Tralfamadorians to have free will is a depressing one. Those who don't have free will must be constantly controlled by another force, as if they are machines with remote controls. I wonder if those who do not have free ever wish for it, or if they even know what it is. If one had never had free will, would they be any less happy than those who have it? If they had never experienced it, would they ever wish for it?
You bring up an interesting point, that I had never thought of before either. The Tralfamadorian mentions that there are other planets with existing life, but it's not mentioned that they are human. So maybe there is no such thing called "free will" because of different communications? Although, I'm sure if there is talk of free will within the planets, then I'd like to think that they wish for their independence instead of being controlled or told how to live. They may not know what it is, but perhaps they have their own word for that. But like you said, no one completely has free will due to consequences, so they could be happy without it, or just as happy as those who have experienced free will.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the very concept of free will even exists in other parts of the universe. The idea of "different communications" is a curious one. Are you saying that inhabitants of other planets have free will, but it has a different set of rules associated with it?
ReplyDeleteThat could be, yeah. Maybe their version of free will is different than ours. The Tralfamadorians don't think there are other planets who speak of free will because it's a totally different concept there.
DeleteI think that when the Tralfamadorians talk about free will, they don't mean it in the same sense that we do when we talk about freedom. When a Tralfamadorian test pilot accidentally destroys the universe by pressing a button, he has the "freedom" to choose whether or not to push the button, but because (according to the Tralfamadorians) he always has pressed it and always will, he has no "free will". When the Tralfamadorian guide says that Earth is the only planet that talks about free will, I think they mean that as in that free will doesn't exist
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