Do We Really Have Free Will?

Do We Really Have Free Will? – Second Thought

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Second Thought is a channel devoted to the things in life worth thinking about! Science, history, politics, religion...basically everything you're not supposed to talk about at the dinner table. Welcome!

[AllAboutEverythingTV]

Alternate video title: How to have an existential crisis in 6 minutes or less.

[jimm.]

I think most people do not understand one definition of free will and so they think they have free will. The version I think of is not about standing in a ice cream shop and making the decision between chocolate and vanilla. A person chooses thus, free will. The version I think of has to do with the thousands and perhaps millions of factors that went into _why_ there was a particular choice. And understanding that all of those factors were out of the control of the individual, hence a lack of at least that definition of free will.

[motazart]

In a court of law the argument about free will shouldn't come up. By a deterministic view you are a broken robot and need to be fixed/isolated. If you had free will and chose to take the wrong action then you have proved to have a 'bad will' and again need to be

[kogureee]

I live with an illusion of free will and I am happy to live in that illusion than in the knowledge that I don't

[midlifecrisisoninfiniteear]

Do I have free will? Ask my wife. Ba-dum-dum tisssh!

[JasonandaCamera]

We make thousands of choices every day. Whether they are predetermined or not doesn't really matter, because we live as if they are ours to make, and the universe appears to us in this manner. We are really capable of doing just about anything and making any choice that is permitted by the laws of nature.

[Miimu]

I have the free will to watch as much hentai as I want

[bigmike]

Pointless everything is definitely pointless. Every choice is an arbitrary step into an endless abyss.

[baddqirlshay]

I believe your subconscious plays a role in what situations appear in front of you but the only way to truly develop as a human being is through free will or experience. Yes we can follow all of the outside programming or take on genetic traits (nature vs nurture). However, I believe the only opportunity you have to truly utilize free will for the greater good is through consciousness, presence, & intention. You have to be completely present in the moment, lest you be more susceptible responding based off past programming.

When humans make a conscious effort to grow or change habits they deem unwanted, that’s when we see a growth or a transformation in a human. We see them able to utilize free will & step into consciousness where they choose to give & to receive all the good that was meant for them & the rest of the world.

On the other hand, humans also have the free will to stay susceptible to the pain & dharma that comes with continuing to not follow the voice within. Which is funny because when you surrender to your higher self or consciousness or presence, that’s when the universe actually opens up in a way so perfect & beautiful that it almost doesn’t feel like free will. That’s because it’s the divine plan.

The divine plan is for all to live in joy no matter what path they choose to take to get there. The pain we do encounter is only to bring us closer to presence & 100% ego inflicted. Once you hear the voice of your free will clearly, you’ll know that faith is the only thing you need for the joy we all so desire. We just have to look at the challenges as trampolines pushing us to greater joy.

The thing is, you don’t have a choice in where you’re going but you can choose the path you take to get there. You can choose to contribute to suffering or peace. Ego, old habits, & programming causes suffering. Presence, consciousness, & listening to your intuition causes joy. We all see joy in the end, which path will you choose to get there?

[knubbin]

More and more recently I've liked to think of my own conscious experience as a kind of ride. I recognize my body doing things that I do not consciously control (nondescript hand movements are an easy example). Whatever it is I'm doing, I am simply reacting to what's around me but my reactions are predetermined based on my biological identity/makeup.

Think of yourself as the sole audience member to your own personal experience and life becomes a whole lot more interesting.

[adamdavenport]

I chose to watch this video.
Ok, no I didn't.
Or did I?
Did you?
Who am I?
Why am I here?

[Siberius-]

3:05 - That quote:
"Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills".
Is in favour of no free will at all. Not compatibilism.
Otherwise it would be:
"Man can CHOOSE what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills".

It's just saying that despite having no free will, you still have a "will" in itself.. it's just not "free". Another word would be that you still have "desires".

[clmoon]

Quantum mechanics?

Assuming something small scale can form into chains and effect on large scales, some kind of random fluctuation created by a different outcome of a superposition, or of quantum entanglement can ultimately effect the universe on a large scale.

Superpositions can implement a "random" outcome based on the stats if it happening, but if the object in question is schrödinger's cat, with a 50 50 ratio of likely to be dead/alive, but to the outside world both is happening, but to the cat it's one or another, so from kitty's perspective the cat could get "derailed from the track" and be launched onto a different parallel universe, and from the human observer the reality branches of onto two parallels, one of which we are stuck on.


Also if we have a pair of quantum entangled coins, we don't know what they are because they are in superposition, but we know that one is heads, one is tails but not which is which, send one to proxima centauri and keep the other on earth, my friend on earth reveals it to be tails, so instantaneously mine is automatically heads. It appears to be a kind of spooky communication faster than light.
If it is random it could mean lots of quantum entanglement gives us free will, or if the particles (the coins) had hidden information that we can't see(like a hidden, string theory super-sub atomic "IF staement"), that determines what they are in specific circumstances, then sorry folks, fake quantum "entanglement" made me do it.

OUR BRANCH OF THE TREE:

Maybe it's just proof of a multiverse. to a degree It seems as if we have free will because other universes where we chose the opposite choice but with the same starting conditions shows that you can choose to walk instead of take the bus if everything until your decision was the same, if we don't have these choices multiverse can't work, right?

Well in another way everything that can be done happens in a universe, and as we experience one path, there will be a path where you choose to walk regardless, because the one where you take the bus has already been taken by another you. But what if in that multiverse there are random "corrupt file" universes, which like corrupt files in computers are unreasonable, random and nothing makes sense, data won't fit and interact "normally" with other data, so as the anti-free will argument suggests total causality, so that you will take the bus based on previous experiences and variables, causality could be destroyed in a "corrupt file" universe hence nothing adds up there, so you can defy causality and make those "decisions"


Finally, possibly cause and effect happens with unconscious non living matter, but why is there life, is life there so something can witness the universe, justify it's existence, to simply help change the entropy of the universe, or to make concious choices so each parallel (assuming there's a multiverse) is different from one another in at least one way (as extra: electrons don't like to share the same state as other electrons, so could the universe be the same?).

If the latter is true, free will may be debatable because we only experience one branch of the multiverse tree, but maybe free will (and multiverse) is there but it's hard to test.

[jeffrelf]

_
"What we chose" (consumption) has been programmed into us ( by nature ).
There are three ways to do it:

1. Live Fast ( consume more now ), Die Fast.
2. Live Slow, Die Later ( consume more later ).
3. Sacrifice yourself so others can consume more.

Either way, the (PreProgrammed) objective is the same: consume.
We ( you, me, and the stars ) consume what we can, given our options;
we neither know nor control our future.
_

[florianverndari]

waking up 3 am and eating icecream for (early) breakfast while watching Adventure Time ====> perfect day

[stene]

Rest in peace, Hawking. We will miss ya

[Spiral]

Considering the theory of time and space being the same thing we can say that our actions are probably our own but the future seems to stretch weirdly. Also considering how time works in other places it can be really confusing...

[herlofrumfragi]

We just had exactly this topic in my Ethics class. I would say, we have the power over our wills, to control them. In that part we are free. But we think we are free, when we are able to do what we want. For example when you have the sudden urge to kill your roommate, because he spilled salsa in your bed, but you choose not to, because you would end up in jail and would regret that decision. But I dont think we have any say in what we actually want. We make up our minds about something and mostly stick to that, no matter what, e.g. with fanboyism when people glorify a company even though they have done bad things, just because they want to like that company. So we are free from our brain, if we choose not to be free for ourselves, maybe even to be free outside of jail. Kinda paradoxical if you think about it.

[turquisestones]

It's absolutely normal to have desires - that is, to will something - without being able to realize first why you desire that. The will is will, and the mind is mind. The fact that a particular desire in your will hasn't been internalized by your brain yet doesn't automatically mean that that desire is not yours and was pre-programmed by some external source. Sure, there are many factors that can influence our desires, and it's also true that some of other desires are stipulated only by those factors. However, this does not mean that absolutely ALL OUR desires fall into that category.

[DrSleepVC]

I’ve always thought about this, but I didn’t know it was actually called something. The idea that everything’s been decided already is scary but it doesn’t change our will.