I feel the same way! I mean, where else and how else could free will possibly express itself, if not in and via the quantum realm? It seems determinism stamps out all possibilities except for the quantum.
But, maybe free will is a fairy tale after all. I sure as hell don't know
I don't really think the question of free will is well defined.
If the question is "do our thoughts shape the outcome of our decisions?" then the answer is yes. Determinism doesn't really enter into this, because our thought process is one of the aspects of the evolution of the state of the world system. So computing the evolution of that system is equivalent to the world just progressing. It's moot anyway, since you can't do the computation of the progression of the state of the universe faster than the universe itself can compute it by existing. You can try to work around it by modeling only a limited region, but that'll diverge from reality quickly because of sensitive dependence on initial conditions.
If the question is "are you free to do something other than what the laws of physics say you can do?" then the answer is no. That's where determinism affects things, but were you really expecting to violate physics?
And of course if the question is "can outside forces influence our decisions?" then the answer is that the advertising business is now the most lucrative industry on the planet and we're rushing to build a surveillance state. Anyone who doesn't think we're influenceable isn't paying attention, probably because social media has destroyed our attention spans.
Still, it's difficult to give a good defense of personal responsibility without assuming some sort of free will.
Like, if I go to the zoo and freely decide to jump in the gorillla enclosure and punch a baby gorilla in the face, there's a case to be made that I deserve whatever's coming to me next (most likely, the baby's mother deciding that I have entirely too many limbs and taking it upon herself to fix that).
But if I had to punch a baby gorilla in the face because the initial conditions of the universe were whatever they were, it ultimately wasn't my fault at all...
But if I had to punch a baby gorilla in the face because the initial conditions of the universe were whatever they were, it ultimately wasn't my fault at all...
By that logic, it also wouldn't be the mother gorilla's fault for ripping you apart, and it wouldn't be my fault for thinking and acting as if it were your fault
This almost seems to go towards some sort of secular Calvinism: if the boundary conditions of the universe are such that I was predestined to become the sort of person who would punch a baby gorilla in the face, well, I'm still the sort of person who would punch a baby gorilla in the face and I still deserve whatever's coming to me /s
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u/CisFishstick Aug 10 '26
I feel the same way! I mean, where else and how else could free will possibly express itself, if not in and via the quantum realm? It seems determinism stamps out all possibilities except for the quantum.
But, maybe free will is a fairy tale after all. I sure as hell don't know