The illusion of free will!

Since the dawn of civilization, one of the most central questions of human existence has been whether or not we have free will.

At first, this seems like a ridiculous question. I am writing this article because I chose to, you are reading this article because you chose to. So, it might seem obvious that we have free will.

But as I think more about this, I began to realize that it is not that obvious. Let’s put it this way, we don’t choose where we are born, we don’t choose our socio-economic backgrounds, we don’t choose our religion, and there are so many things in our life that are completely beyond our control but play a major role in defining us as a person. Needless to say, our decisions are greatly influenced by most of these factors.

But still, there are certain things that we have control over, right?

Free Will — Scientific Standpoint

Many scientific theories state that all human behavior can be explained through the clockwork laws of cause and effect. We all know that changes in brain chemistry can alter the behavior of an individual drastically. Cases of normal people becoming murderers after developing a brain tumor demonstrated how dependent we are on the physical components of the brain.

The difficulty presented by neuroscience is more extreme: It describes that the brain is a physical system just like any other and it doesn’t function any different than the other physical systems. The current scientific view of human behavior is one in which neurons fire, causing the firing of other neurons, which in turn causes our thoughts and actions, in an unbroken chain that extends back to our birth and beyond.

Therefore, we are entirely predictable in theory. Theoretically, we could predict a person’s response to any given stimulus with 100% accuracy if we had a thorough understanding of that person’s brain chemistry and architecture.

From a physical perspective, all that exists is a deterministic vibrational interaction of atoms (at least in the classical physics picture of the universe). This is, in my opinion, pretty straightforward: all of the particles that make up our bodies comply with a set of closed laws that regulate the time evolution of all the physical properties. If they don’t, physics is fundamentally flawed as we currently understand it. If they do, then there is absolutely no room for the idea of free will.

Free Will — Philosophical Standpoint

Many philosophers argue that life is deterministic in nature. All events including human actions are determined exclusively by prior causes. Since all particles and phenomena in the universe operate off of cause and effect patterns in which there is always a continual chain of preceding explanations, human actions are no exception.

Viewing from any standpoint, it is clear that there is no such thing as free will. While all these theories seem logical, our intuition still doesn't want to agree with them. Let us dig deeper to understand this better.

Isn’t “doing what I want to do” called free will?

Consider this — On a Friday evening, on my way home from work, if I randomly want to stop by a park because of no apparent reason, then wouldn’t it be considered free will? I stopped at a park because I wanted to. There is no external force that made me do it and there is no physiological need for me to do so. So, it is free will, or is it?

Sure, I chose to go to the park because I wanted to. But, why did I want to? It simply emerged into my consciousness from some unknown stream of events and information that I was mostly unaware of and did not control.

If I could have wanted to want to go to the park, wouldn’t I have also wanted to want to want to go the park? and so on and so forth into infinity, which of course I did not and could not have done.

If I do something exactly opposite to what I am supposed to, do I break the chain?

There is always a continual chain of preceding explanations for whatever we do

So, what if I choose to do something that I didn’t and wouldn't ever actually do? Since I am doing what I don’t want to, for no reason, without being forced by anyone or anything other than myself, I’d be acting of my own free will and overriding any deterministic sequence.

But didn’t I technically still do what I wanted? This, although convoluted, was just another want that I didn’t ultimately choose. This attempt to escape the cause-and-effect sequence was itself determined by the very same sequence.

What’s the point of living if there is no free will?

No matter how you look at it, it is clear that we have no free will. So, what’s the point of living? If there is no free will, why do I have to go to work, or pay my taxes? Does anything matter?

Well, yes! To put it simply, Life is like a video game. We thoroughly enjoy a video game that we know is fake. All of the challenges in the game are predetermined and pre-coded. The game operates with specific borders, rules, and controls that all work towards a story that essentially has one single path to one single predetermined end.

We fundamentally have no control over how the game is played and where it goes. We just follow the storyline as it already exists, experiencing the illusion of actually performing the actions in it. And yet, despite the knowledge of this, we do enjoy the game. And, the same goes for life. Knowing that free will is an illusion is not going to change anything!

Knowing something is an illusion does not stop the illusion from working! Illusions are illusions because they work.