Weirdly, I feel like the best argument to free will comes from Dr. Malcolm (famously acted in a pervy way by Jeff Goldblum) who talked about chaos theory. Complex systems have an underlying order. But also, the reverse of that is true, in that simple systems can lead to complex behaviour. Or to borrow a subreddit term, “never tell me the odds.”
That’s not an argument for free will. Chaos is just a mathematical property of certain systems.
We can mathematically prove that the complexity of certain systems means that their outcomes are unpredictable if you look far enough into the future because of exponentially how many possible outcomes there are.
That’s all chaos theory is, the idea that even if the universe behaves according to deterministic or probabilistic physics, and we could map the position and properties of every single particle in the universe, we still wouldn’t necessarily be able to predict the future in X years.
That’s not an argument for free will though, tons and tons and tons of relatively simple systems (like the famous three body problem) that do not involve free will produce chaotic outcomes.
Right emergence. That doesn’t mean that you couldn’t in theory predict exactly what a human being would do if you had perfect measurements.
To me we should stop worrying about free will and worry about agency. You have more agency than a slave, a billionaire has more than you. We know that people have agency.
Weirdly, I feel like the best argument to free will comes from Dr. Malcolm (famously acted in a pervy way by Jeff Goldblum) who talked about chaos theory. Complex systems have an underlying order. But also, the reverse of that is true, in that simple systems can lead to complex behaviour. Or to borrow a subreddit term, “never tell me the odds.”
That’s not an argument for free will. Chaos is just a mathematical property of certain systems.
We can mathematically prove that the complexity of certain systems means that their outcomes are unpredictable if you look far enough into the future because of exponentially how many possible outcomes there are.
That’s all chaos theory is, the idea that even if the universe behaves according to deterministic or probabilistic physics, and we could map the position and properties of every single particle in the universe, we still wouldn’t necessarily be able to predict the future in X years.
That’s not an argument for free will though, tons and tons and tons of relatively simple systems (like the famous three body problem) that do not involve free will produce chaotic outcomes.
Thanks for bringing up Sexy Beefcake Dr Malcolm.
Right emergence. That doesn’t mean that you couldn’t in theory predict exactly what a human being would do if you had perfect measurements.
To me we should stop worrying about free will and worry about agency. You have more agency than a slave, a billionaire has more than you. We know that people have agency.