Is true free will possible? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is true free will possible?

#21

Post by aristofun » Thu, Jun 20, 2024, 4:43 PM UTC

soheiljs wrote: post #17

aristofun wrote: post #16

Anyone who claims knowing the answer with any degree of certainty is either profiting from the answer or is not educated enough to know that this question is first a philosophical one. But even in purely materialistic framework it can not be answered because “will” is a non materialistic concept. In terms of my personal life experience and beliefs - this is what uniquely distinguishes people from other animals. We ar…

I disagree with your last point. What distinguishes us from other animals is that we are the only species that can make up stories. Stories enable us to cooperate in a large scale. Stories like democracy, human rights, United States, Europe many more.

There is much more to that than just "stories".

But it's another good sign we already have so called "free will".

Re: Is true free will possible?

#22

Post by nbernard » Fri, Jun 21, 2024, 7:01 AM UTC

True free will? No. Agency? Yes.

(Proof left as an exercise to the reader).

Re: Is true free will possible?

#23

Post by Quinzel » Fri, Jun 21, 2024, 10:11 AM UTC

I’m a hard determinist, so I think no, free will is not possible.

I think the illusion of free will comes from having self-awareness.

Still, even as a hard determinist, when I go about my day, making “my choices”, I believe I am consciously deciding, I would even go as far as to say that I have a strong internal locus of control. It’s only when I stop to think about it, that I always end up deciding that nothing I’ve done is the result of pure free will, and rather it’s very much determined by things way beyond my control.

Re: Is true free will possible?

#24

Post by vunderba » Fri, Jun 21, 2024, 7:24 PM UTC

I wrote a paper several years ago collecting all of my personal thoughts around what I believe are fundamental physiological constraints on the domain of "free will".

While I tried to keep it within the realm of the layman's understanding, there may be some subtle points that may be a bit difficult to understand.

https://specularrealms.com/genetic-freedom

Re: Is true free will possible?

#25

Post by hiAndrewQuinn » Sat, Jun 22, 2024, 9:59 AM UTC

Qualia's a mysterious enough thing that I've settled on "sure, why not".

The fact that we experience things in a universe where there's no apparent need for any of it is just so weird compared to everything else that it renders most philosophical questions impossible to answer with much certainty.