Re: Free Will and Humakt (and the Lozenge)

From: Jonathan Coxhead <jonathan_at_doves.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 17:04:13 +0000

| >>Argh! How many times do I have to say it. Humakt has no free will.
| >
| >You have to say it just as many times as others will say that Humakt only
| >has no free will if you believe in a subjectivist point of view of the gods
| >of Glorantha.
|
| [...]
|
| You could believe that Humakt had free will then, and doesn't now.
| Everyone knows that mortal beings have free will, and everyone knows that
| the relationship between the humans and gods was different once. So you
| could assume that Humakt had free will either a) when he walked the earth
| as a mortal (OK, not generally believed to be true in Humakts case, but
| applies for many other deities) or b) in the Godtime, before the
| Compromise, but he doesn't anymore.

   'Everyone knows that mortal beings have free will?' Nah ... they are just persuaded by certain high-level components of their nervous systems that they have free will, in order to account for the otherwise inexplicable things that they do all the time.

   Reference: a chapter in _Figments_of_Reality_ by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen entitled 'We were going to have a chapter on free will but we decided not to, so here it is.'

   However, maybe _Gloranthan_ mortals have free will ... Don't you envy them?

   By the way, I'm enjoying the discussion on the appearance of the sun at various points times in the day, and the discussion I read recently on the appearance of the horizon in a flat earth. (Essentially, there isn't one. If you go out on aclear day by the coast and look out to sea, the horizon is very obvious. It's an interesting mental exercise to try to imagine what you would see if the earth were flat.)

   On the web at http://www.rahul.net/rootbear/graphics/ringworld there is a very lovely site containing computer-modelled pictures of a ringworld (and a description of what one is for the uninitiated). It really takes you there. I wonder if a similar thing could be done for Glorantha? A 3-d modelled image that you could view at different scales and actually see what the appearance of the atmospheric effects are, and maybe even a version by night, as well.

   I'd be tempted to do it myself, but I don't have the resources right now. I'm sure the results would be impressive, though.

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