The origin of choice

I've been thinking about this for a long time. My question is this,
HOW DO WE CHOOSE ONE THING OVER ANOTHER?? ON WHAT BASIS??
IN THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL LEVEL, HOW DO WE PREFER SOMETHING OVER ANOTHER??

Are our likes dislikes, imprinted in our DNA?? or do we acquire it after birth??, And if we learn to choose after birth, are these initial choices entirely arbitrary?? or is there a choice preceding even before our very first choice??
I feel that our initial choices (upon which the later choices are based upon) may be subject to inclinations as per the type of body we inherit from parents, so in a way we inclined choose a particular type of thing, and so , in the long run, we may very well be like our parents ,if given the same environment.

However,I am not aware of any survey or any real world example to speak of , But really am confronted by this enigma quite often. like,
why do i prefer chocolate over vanilla? the answer of which leads to "because of the chocolaty taste", so the next question could be " why do i choose the chocolaty taste over vanillai test? which may lead to "because of a certain degree of repulsion towards the concentration of sweetness in vanilla", so the next question may be, why am i repulsed by that nature of vanilla?? and so on, But where did it all start?? Was it determined or did i determine it??

Thoughts??

This thing used to torment me when I find my school friend always outstanding in studies however my labor was more than his. He has a great lineage of heredity. His Grandfather was Sanskrit teacher with great deal of knowledge in Vedas, grandmother as a teacher, Father a double Phd holder, mother again a teacher and brother who topped Budanilkantha School with record breaking performance. It is a great matter for discussion become some scientist have found possibility of some acquire character to be transfer through genes.
I think the matter of consciousness and ability to think different is somewhat brought by birth. I might be wrong but what are other's perception towards it??

Okay, Here's a question:
Suppose a baby has just been born. She/He has been kept in an isolation chamber devoid of any stimuli , however she is supplied with food and water and air through tubes directly injected into her body.Now in this case, let's say after a microsecond of her birth, if she should be given two candies, one green another red, WILL SHE BE ABLE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THE TWO? OR IN A WAY, PREFER ONE OVER ANOTHER?

there are many things that are related to the example you shared.
It depends on whether the born baby is right handed or left handed. So if u put any one of candy close to the hand that the born child is use more often then the candy close to that hand would be his/her accepted candy.
Another thing is whether one candy emits more light than another or not. The candy which reflects more light is the one he/she accepts.
It's not what I only think but is also an acceptable fact.

okay, lets say the candy is put in the "mid-distant" from every angle along the bilateral symmetry of human body., what then? and by the way,on what basis would a baby be right/left handed??

and about that light thing, what do you mean by "more light?", more of what? photons??, or are you talking about wavelengths(which does have direct relation with colour)??

very interesting topic and debate... I think the origin of choice is largely the genes because there are many things people show distaste towards from very early childhood & from the very first encounter....for eg my parents tell me even when i used to be a toddler i didn't like mutton at all....another example is that from the first time some people may like a foreign dish or hate it.....

It does seem that genes have a lot to with the type of choices a person makes. However it cannot be all it. If it is, it would mean our life began on the basis of the mechanics of biology that is entirely deterministic.And that our "initial choices" were entirely predictable and that the adult that develops is merely a giant reflection of these deterministic constructs.Therefore free will would have to go.

VforVendetta wrote:okay, lets say the candy is put in the "mid-distant" from every angle along the bilateral symmetry of human body., what then? and by the way,on what basis would a baby be right/left handed??

and about that light thing, what do you mean by "more light?", more of what? photons??, or are you talking about wavelengths(which does have direct relation with colour)??

even the scientist are unable to clarify why people are right or left handed by birth.
I mean to say if some shining item and non shining item is given as a choice to baby then he/she would go for the shining one.
Now don't ask me how does the baby know item was shining.

Well that's the very question for this topic:
Is there or is there not, an order based on which the most basic ones are made?? In a way, is to ask, is free will free?
As far as i can see there are two ways to resolve this:
1. All is random. If we should go back and time and start over again, we'd turn out very different.
2.All is causality.Our being is merely a product of the infinite causes that sprouted from beginingless time and what will be, is an effect of what is now and that we're a not so much a player but a mere observer of this cosmic game.

But you can always take solace in wild theories of physics. One of which being "MANY WORLD'S THEORY" which basically says that whenever we have to make a choice, the universe literally splits into two. One in which i chose the red candy and another in which i chose the green candy. This means in the whole of our lifetime, and so with all those of "known " setient beings" of the universe, there might just be ridiculously large number of universes out there very similar to our own, but not quite the same. And this all begins at the point of origin of choice.

now its has become more like a parallel universes as that in The One and skipping time barrier as that in The Time Machine. Well for me all these things are bullshit. For the basic reality is what I search for. Choice is very circumstantial and affected by environment. Hence choice is something I choiced rather than something that was permuted from a lot of possibilities that I didnot know from my conciousness. I will always take the best alternative that I feel is right.

just take one cigarette and light it take a puff and blow the smoke.....see the shape of the smoke as it receedes away from u?.........Have u got ur answer

What do you mean? Are you implying choice is as "natural yet unpredictable" as the path the smoke takes while it recedes away from me?

VforVendetta wrote:What do you mean? Are you implying choice is as "natural yet unpredictable" as the path the smoke takes while it recedes away from me?

well take it in this way, like the smoke of cigarette that take the various form as it receedes away from me ..... shape of the smoke is different from at one point of time is different from the another shape of smoke at another point of time but after all whatever shape the smoke takes only shape varies but the very nature is same so our life is the manifestation of infinite energy that keeps on moving and changing shape , so the comprehension of one life is not enough to understand all this order (or chaos )of this universe,your activity will define the course of ur life not only this but so many to come........so something is predetermined....but our choice and the course of action can change the phenomena.....am i clear?