If free will did not exist, how would you ever be able to imagine such a thing? An entity that is constrained by determinism, say a computer program, has no room to "step outside" its own frame and imagine things running an different way. In essence, free will and consciousness the same thing.
We can imagine tons of things that don't exist. For instance I'm currently imagining a bouncy ball that instead of bouncing according to deterministic laws, bounces according to a mystic will-based system.
Photons, Quasars and the Possibility of Free Will
101–110 of 265 posts
Re: Photons, Quasars and the Possibility of Free Will
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I write a program that scans for counter example of Fermat-theorem it will run until physics is kind to my machine. The non-halting property of this setup is caused by the physical arrangements/movements of particles and the laws of nature. Fermat-theorem is an abstraction having no real causal power. I would say, that for us the proof of Fermat-theorem is the right abstraction level to explain the general behavio…
> Similarly "punishment causes less crime" may be the right level of abstraction if the correlation is there, even if it can't be reduced to physical terms. If it can't be reduced to physical terms (and there's no free will) it doesn't matter if its the "right level of abstraction" or not. We have no other alternative but to think of it at whether level of abstraction we're determined to think of it. We don't have a…
Re: Photons, Quasars and the Possibility of Free Will
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Yup, free will is meaningless, there's no measurable difference between an universe which has a free will and one that doesn't. Actually there is: in a universe with free will, you must have intelligent agents that can understand their own actions and learn from their choices. A universe lacking free will would lack these qualities, and be observably different as a result.
> A universe lacking free will would lack these qualities Why?
Re: Photons, Quasars and the Possibility of Free Will
#104> Of course, randomness isn’t the only thing necessary for free will Not only that, but randomness and determinism are equally against the (casual) idea of free will. Free will, as commonly understood, means there's an "extra layer of abstraction" between the universe (material objects and their relationships) and me. What people called "soul". It's not just that our decisions (will) are random instead of predetermin…
> Free will, as commonly understood, means there's an "extra layer of abstraction" between the universe (material objects and their relationships) and me. What people called "soul". This was commonly believed for a long time, but there have been numerous studies in experimental philosophy that actually tested this question, and it turns out that people's moral reasoning is Compatibilist. See the latest: Why compatibi…
I pretty strongly disagree with this statement. I am not a compatibilist, but I am fully aware of the differences between fatalism and determinism. If I believed in fatalism then I would believe that If am fated to recover or die from an illness, it would happen regardless of whatever actions I take, etc. With determinism I believe the outcome from whatever illness I receive will depend on the illness, the actions taken, my overall health, etc. etc. etc., all the way back through the causal chain at the start of the universe.
I believe everything adheres to causality. Compatabilists and I would both agree that we cannot determine our motivations, but then we would disagree if there is "free will" in the choice we make based on those motivations. My brain is a physical entity, ruled by the laws of physics. Every decision I make is ruled by those laws, because my brain cannot work in any other way. If we had perfect knowledge of how the brain works (and I believe this is possible), you can boil down the thought process of "I have a memory of stubbing my toe and it hurt, so I will make the conscious effort to avoid stubbing my toe" to the composite physics that result in said thought process. Given all of the same inputs, the same outputs will come in to play.
This somewhat ignores the randomness of the quantum world, but I don't think it particularly effects the outcome - if time could be rewound to the start of the universe, and the play button pushed, quantum effects would likely mean that we do not end up with the same universe we have today, but I don't see how having randomness fundamentally would mean that I as a human being have any increase in my ability to come to a decision. The inputs would be different, if I were to exist at all, but I would still be bound by the same laws of physics that determine how my brain functions.
Compatabilitists and I sharing similar ideas about moral reasoning doesn't change that. My "moral reasoning" is that things like the laws we create are still all based on causality, and that the actions people take are in turn causally related to the inputs we give them, such as the laws. Changing this inputs results in different outputs when considering things like potential futures, which are then inputs into the decision making process, etc.
But I also believe that it doesn't really matter, as far as day to day life goes. At current, humans lack the ability to perceive life in such a way that we can figure out how any of that shit actually works. I can behave and think in a way that is similar enough to how free will would work that it doesn't matter. To change this, we would need perfect knowledge of how basically everything works, have the ability to measure every necessary input in the system, and calculate the outcomes. If we are ever able to reach that point, I'm pretty sure it'll be so far into the future it's nothing worth worrying myself about.
Re: Photons, Quasars and the Possibility of Free Will
#105> Of course, randomness isn’t the only thing necessary for free will Not only that, but randomness and determinism are equally against the (casual) idea of free will. Free will, as commonly understood, means there's an "extra layer of abstraction" between the universe (material objects and their relationships) and me. What people called "soul". It's not just that our decisions (will) are random instead of predetermin…
> Not only that, but randomness and determinism are equally against the (casual) idea of free will. I'm not sure that I'd agree. Maybe the layman doesn't think about how to reconcile determinism with their concept of free will, but it is possible. Talking about free will without a working definition is hard. If free will is: " You are free to make any choices presented to you." Then it becomes simple to argue that yo…
Re: Photons, Quasars and the Possibility of Free Will
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Doesn't matter, what matters is - is a commitment to punish certain behavior decreasing number of people behaving that way? If there's no free will obviously not -- since any crime decision is predetermined upon the earlier states of the universe (even before we appeared on Earth), and any drop in crime in correlation with a "commitment to punish certain behavior" is just correlation itself, and not causation (both…
> If there's no free will obviously not -- since any crime decision is predetermined upon the earlier states of the universe (even before we appeared on Earth), and any drop in crime in correlation with a "commitment to punish certain behavior" is just correlation itself, and not causation (both things being caused by those earlier states). An asteroid hitting Earth is predetermined by early stages of universe too. I…
It was the cause but it was predetermined itself.
Note that the free will of the dinosaurs or the asteroid doesn't enter the picture at all here. Similarly, and this is the argument, in the drop-in-crime case, our "commitment to punish certain behavior" is not any more of a commitment than the rock was "committed" to extinguish the dinosaurs.
>Why is it different when people are involved?
It's not different physically. The actions can't be said to be decisions is all or to have caused a particular chain of events is all (that chain was the only possible one).
>In the case of criminals and punishement assuming determinism - our brains deterministically evolved to deterministically respond to punishement by deterministically changing the behaviour when punished.
The point is that they couldn't have evolved any other way, and the crime couldn't have been any less or more than what it is. So those measures can't be said to have dropped crime (since it could never be anything else).
Re: Photons, Quasars and the Possibility of Free Will
#107Re: Photons, Quasars and the Possibility of Free Will
#108The article argues that "randomness" (by which it means essential unpredictability) is experimentally backed. This is an awkward constraint for a universe designer: isn't a totally deterministic universe much easier and simpler? Free will has no room to survive in a clockwork universe. But free will remains a viable position, despite the philosophical contortions, but supported by experimental evidence like what's di…
Reminds me of this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1TVZIBj7UA
Effects of electromagnetic waves you emit will appear random to you, even if you produce a rather orderly amount (and distribution) of them. Did the universe take away with no reason? Well, it did go and drained off a good portion of your emitted energy because of the many places they go and the many effects they can have. I'm not entirely sure what I'm trying to say here, I just think the actual pipes through which you send information (waves) in this universe are quite a mess, and that's probably being gentle.
Re: Photons, Quasars and the Possibility of Free Will
#109> Of course, randomness isn’t the only thing necessary for free will Not only that, but randomness and determinism are equally against the (casual) idea of free will. Free will, as commonly understood, means there's an "extra layer of abstraction" between the universe (material objects and their relationships) and me. What people called "soul". It's not just that our decisions (will) are random instead of predetermin…
In either scenario, there can be knowledge about the future, which, paradoxically, might cause that future never to materialize.
There's no paradox, just a wrong assumption.
Re: Photons, Quasars and the Possibility of Free Will
#110someone mentioned free will not existing because every decision made is the result of past decisions. Given a choice between A or B, I will only choose given who I am and therefore there was really no choice to begin with. When you're born you have no past to rely on but there sure seems to be a lot of randomness in a baby/child. Maybe randomness is free-will but it slowly erodes away with time.