So.. haven’t had a deep discussion with you folks in a while.. what do you think of free will?
Discussion
I'm in favor of it, as long as people do what I want them to.
😂😂 this is a zap worthy note, please add a wallet
I believe things are largely predetermined but there is a push/pull with free will in which we need to remain confident in our judgements and act as if we have influence. basically both, which might be a cop out
It's like a Waze map. Your destination is fixed even if you don't follow the route strictly.
I’m actually the opposite, I don’t think we have free will, but I also don’t think that things are largely pre determined. I think our choices are a function of context + how we learned to deal with past experiences and that’s it. But at the same time our choices do affect the outcomes of a lot of things.
I guess if you believe this, a good way to live is to be able to teach yourselves to handle any situation as well as maximize your choices.
I had a super intense acid trip where I became convinced that we are truly free to choose at all times what we are doing, at least as far as what options are available to us. Though it might seem like most of the time we don't have a choice, that's just because we usually opt for the safest choice. Thankfully we also have the ability to extrapolate what the consequences of our choices may be.
For example right now I am sitting in my chair with two cats on my lap. I could continue to sit here, nice and comfy, and discuss free will. I could get up and make breakfast and disturb my cats. Or I could go get my gun and start shooting randomly out the window.
The first option is the safest and most likely. I want to finish this comment anyway. Eventually I will probably do option two because I'm hungry. The last one is highly unlikely because it would ruin my life and remove a lot of future optionality.
Those are just 3 options I have right now. There are an infinite amount of other things I could choose to do at this very moment. I'm choosing to post this comment.
Interesting take. But just the fact that you only take certain options out of the infinite and chose them consistently hint at their being no free will? Us just calculating, and if a calculation can give you an answer is that really free?