/sci/ - Science & Math

Does the Heisenberg uncertainty principle dictate that there is such a thing as free will?

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100701_freewill.htm

Free will still doesn't exist.
Just a daily reminder.

Everything you do is as a result of chemical and electrical signals in your brain, which themselves are caused by other stimuli, which have their own causes, dating back to the big bang Fundamentally, atoms reacting to other atoms in a long chain reaction.

Where does free will fit into all of this?

Hey /sci/. I had an English class some time ago and we all had to choose a subject to write an argumentative paper on. He chose to write about how humans don't have free will.

Apparently there is some theory that supposedly proves that if ones decisions are plotted for a long enough time we would be able to use that data to estimate what their next course of action would be.

I can't remember his exact words but it was something like that. This interests me very much. What is this theory called?

Sure, future events are determined. I don't deny that. But the second you give me knowledge about my future, it ceases to be actual future knowledge. If you say "OP, tomorrow you will take the blue pill" I could just take the red pill to spite you.
So knowledge of my future is epiphenomenal: it can't interact with me. As far as I'm concerned, it might as well not exist.

My brain is what controls my behaviour. It is, like all matter, composed entirely of chemicals. It is extraordinarily complicated, with many many working parts, all interconnected in a fiendish and as-yet unfathomed pattern. No matter how complicated a thing is, however, it remains true that at any given instant in time, it is in a particular state. The chemicals are joined in particular combinations, and energy and matter are moving around in particular directions.

Some stimulus comes into my brain from outside. It is sensed by my senses and the signal is sent to my brain. That signal interacts with my brain, changes the physical and chemical state of my brain, and the result is some behaviour from me. My body follows what my brain instructs it to do. Where was the free will? There wasn’t any.

Does free will exist?

Is free will an illusion because some neurons come before a thought? Is putting one foot before the other not your decision just because you don't think about it?

/sci/entific thought?

So when did /sci/ stop believing in free will?

Hey /sci/
Does free will exist?

My Hypothesis.

Free will is a lie, an illusion to make us think we actually control our actions. Free will vanished the moment you took your first breath outside of the womb.

Beliefs are not a choice, and they guide our actions. A person merely views evidence, and a belief forms itself based on cultural, genetic, and environmental factors. This evidence persuades beliefs to exist, not in black of white, but at any point in between.

The weaker the belief, the more force our already programmed mind will accept another alternative. The stronger the belief, the less force our mind will exert to overturn the belief and the belief will trump any evidence that contradicts that belief unless the belief was susceptible to change (strong beliefs fight this urge).

tl;dr evidence forms beliefs, beliefs drive our actions, actions define us, not free will.

I think free will is a meaningless concept.
So if it turns out that all our decisions can be predicted if we were able to know the exact relationship of all the atoms and such inside our brains, then people view this as "no free will" we are just machines that are preprogrammed.

So if that isnt free will then that would require that free will have a random element, which is quite possible considering the current interpretation of modern physics, well this would not be free will either. It would be a roll of the dice, a random choice, that is not free will.

So in the end, free will does not exists, it is impossible for it to exist, either everything is predetermined, or everything is determined by the pure random interactions, either case, free will isnt real ,both theoretically and physically.

Does /sci/ think we have free will.

Or is our brain just reacting to the situation given to us?

Are we just biological machines?

OP believes we are.