Review of "The Social Animal" by David Brooks

The Social Animal by David Brooks is another cynical article.  Incredibly cynical and as a result, I liked it just about as much as the past two.  Brooks shows the reader that there is no such thing as free will.  Everything in our personality, our tendencies, and even whom we love is governed absolutely by predictable biological processes in our brain.

The implications of this finding are immense.  Perhaps in the future we could predict every action and thought by simply taking into account all of the physiological changes that occur in a person.  Imagine a world in which a website such as Eharmony could actually predict “true love” with samples of DNA.  I fear this realization in humanity because this could put enormous power in hands of the few who could afford it.  The man versus machine futuristic view may in fact be wrong.  What is man if there is no longer free will?  Man will perhaps be just as predictable as a toaster.  This turns the man versus machine viewpoint into a single side, simply machine.  

Not every change in the future would be negative; some would be a drastic change for the better.  There would be no need for wars because if every human action were predictable, the victor would already be known from the initiation of the battle.  Another positive side to this realization is that any form of tricking or deceiving would become incredibly hard.  This would help cleanse corruption and greed from the modern world.  

I can easily see many groups fighting against this realization, however one can only fight the truth for so long.  This new viewpoint is quite pessimistic when compared to free will and therefore the people who believe in free will have a hard time accepting this new unfortunate truth.  The truth to humanity will probably bring about destruction and death.  We must be incredibly careful while spreading this sensitive information.  If we force it upon people they will feel forced to take action against it.