There is no free will, but we are free | Brian Greene and Lex Fridman

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GUEST BIO:
Brian Greene is a theoretical physicist.

PODCAST INFO:

SOCIAL:

[ranxerox]

Schopenauer: "Man can do what he wants, but he cannot choose what he wants."

[pranitiyengar]

Doesnt that mean we are just super advanced rocks with a wide repertoire of responses to stimuli ?

[andsalomoni]

"Where does freedom come from, if we haven't any kind of physics based free will?"
The question contains the answer: freedom doesn't come from any physical processes. It comes from awareness, which is not a physical process.

[jaykay]

This guy is money. You ask him a question, he gives you an answer and it's not only a good one but a great one and damn near irrefutable.

[leofedorov]

I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like I have response capabilities of a rock or a bottle of water. Usually on Monday mornings.

[TheRealStructurer]

Well spoken Brian. Will have to listen to the full talk! Great choice of guest Lex 👍🏼

[cosmingurau]

No. That is not *freedom*, that is simply a more complex EXPERIENCE. Don't play the language game, dude.

[truwth]

I don't know Brian. Complexity seems to be doing all the work in that definition of freedom.

[adamjensen]

Of course we don’t have free will. Why are we attracted to other humans and not donkeys? Because the coding in our genes tells us to. Do we have a choice in regards to our personality which in turn dictate our behavior? No we dont, it is passed down to us through the genes we inherit from our family. Our genes to us are like an operating system to a computer.

[patrickdodge]

We have the freedom to choose within the constraints of that which we are bound. Freedom to think within the bounds of the information you have processed. Freedom to choose which information you accept as truth. Freedom to choose which thoughts to act on and manifest. Freedom to choose how to physically move within the bounds of reality. Freedom to choose how to act within the bounds of human law and morality... etc... We have a lot of freedoms that people don't realize.

[Jason-gtkx]

It is such a struggle to accept there is no free will, even though most of the scientists I respect tell me there is none. Quantum mechanics is based on probabilities, and since we are built from quantum particles it is hard for me to believe in determinism.

[barbarosozturk]

Amazing! This is precisely the exact wording I was looking for.

[caroldance]

It wasn't my fault, officer; it was the result of the operations of physical law. Hmm, don't see that one holding much water!

[james-r]

It’s crazy that the universe has evolved creatures to observe itself.

[VanillaBryce]

The Elegant Universe fundamentally changed how I understand physics. That whole book was one big Ah-Ha moment for me. Understanding the concepts is one thing. Being able to articulate them in a way that people can understand is a whole other thing.

[BarriosGroupie]

And our biological straight-jacket runs the show by rewarding us with a selection of bio-chemical drugs.

[buddha-chris]

Free will is a false notion.

There is will, there are actions.

The term free will postulates that there could of been another choice made but the choice itself depends on factors and the factors are what makes the will flow towards the choice.

The term “Free will” is completely ridiculous when it’s looked into deeply. It doesn’t make sense. Choice upon no factors would be completely worthless.

Therefore the individuals choice is free within the domain of body-mind

[jonathanaarhus]

This is basically Compatibilism, which I wholeheartedly believe to be true as well.

[blengi]

what law says which slit the photon goes through? In some sense the photon is "free" to go one way or the other/ both. Then what about count less similar irreducible quantum uncertainties/freedoms complexly interwoven, - How much more "free" is such a system to evolve? Now introduce all the various feedbacks high to low in scale. How much emergent regulatory structure is there in the ebb and flow of the "freedom" of all these aggregate quantum uncertainties? Can such aggregate uncertainty ever organize to auto regulate and bias various dynamical outcomes, to the point the system is making choices as to which states of quantum mechanically irreducible "freedom" are preferred?

[anthonywalker]

The problem is that, like so much in language today, "free will" is a term ignorantly used. It was clear to Voltaire, Godwin and Shelley what "free will" implied.
How many proponents of free will today would still stand by it with this classic definition:
Free will affirms that one's will is free of motive, free from antecedents, free from the influences of one's past and present; that it is its own first cause and is not caused by anything. Consequently, were one's will not produced, but free, then one would only have feelings and thoughts one wanted to have. One would will to will, want to want.