Why Free Will is an illusion

In this video, I argue why free will is an illusion. You have no freedom in wanting to watch this video or read these words because you cannot choose what you want to choose. You have no free will over your will - and when that is the case; Free will is an Illusion.

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* Sources:
Harris, Sam. 2012. Free Will
Big Think, 'Hey Bill Nye, Do Humans Have Free Will?'

* Background Music:

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[aDoseofReason]

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[TJ-]

If I had free will, random thoughts would never enter my mind that I did not choose to have.

[Radioposting]

“Of course we have free will because we have no choice but to have it.”
— Christopher Hitchens

[logancollier]

I figured out that there was no free will just by thinking about it when I was about 17. I told other people and they got angry so I stopped telling people. I didn't know about the fact that consciousness comes after the fact. I just knew that what you decide one moment to the next is based on almost purely unconscious causes, genes, experiences, moods, habits etc. The choices you think you are making lead you down one path or another usually without you knowing where that choice will lead and that forces other choices to be made. When people would get angry they would say then why do anything? It did not make me angry nor did I think it makes it so that we can't live like we have free will or take responsibility for our actions. It does make it harder to hate other people as they are a product of cause and effect too.

[RetNemmoc]

"You" ARE your brain. Consciousness is an emergent sensory/coordinative function of the brain that is not that different than the ability to react to touch, smell, sound, heat, pressure, etc. The difference is that it is multi-sensory and reactive/controlling in a way that is not yet fully understood. It is the traffic cop, dispatcher, air-traffic controller, moderator, judge.. or any number of other analogous "all-seeing" decision makers. The 300 MS delay is no different than the delay in sensing pain after a traumatic injury. It's the noise of a city. The city isn't conscious, but it is alive in a way. 

Anyway, that's the explanation I dreamt up when I was a kid. I don't hold to it, I just like the sound of it. When someone asks what I think happens to their 'soul' upon death, I ask, "Where does the light go when you turn off the switch?"

[bdf]

Remember when you were a child and you did something that caused damage? You probably weren't intending to cause damage, you were just exploring how the world worked. Remember an adult asking you why you did it? You said you didn't know, because you didn't know why you did it.

But similar incidents occurred over the years and you came to realize that adults want explanations for why you did things. So you learned to create such explanations, and eventually it became automatic to do so.

Our illusion of free will comes from our habit of inventing stories to explain why we did things. We believe it because we find it useful to predict the actions of others by assuming they have free will.

[Heather-fxsr]

I once heard someone say “Yes you have free will, but you made all those decisions before you came here.”
More will be revealed ✨

[stello]

I think Schopenhauer put it best: "A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants".

Einstein had something to say about that as well: "I do not at all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense... Schopenhauer’s saying, (...) has been a very real inspiration to me since my youth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life’s hardships, my own and others’, and an unfailing wellspring of tolerance. This realization mercifully mitigates the easily paralyzing sense of responsibility and prevents us from taking ourselves and other people too seriously; it is conducive to a view of life which, in part, gives humour its due."

[moonshoes]

My Will chose to like this video, and I enjoyed liking it.

[equ-ipe]

This is why we think before we act and act upon on it or prevent it
that’s the freedom

[Laneline]

I absolutely love this channel. It's a breath of fresh air. Thank you for the content you provide.

[IbadassI]

The fact that you can choose to appreciate life, is that free will?

[stephenderenick]

I would love to know how many people subscribed after this video. Best bait I've ever seen.

[davidgould]

Sabine Hossenfelder (I think I spelled that right - sorry, Sabine, if not) gives a physicist's argument against free will (including the quantum stuff). Christopher Hitchens said that he believed in free will "because he had no choice". (Quote probably a bit approximate). Sorry - I just had to write that stuff.

[jordanrohlfing]

Sapolsky doesn’t think we have free will. That is why I clicked

[mrsbethaniesmith]

Seeking and Applying Wisdom is probably as close to free will as we can get.

[inlibertywetrust]

I think that Sabine hossenfelders (she is a theoretical physicist) youtube video "I don't believe in free will. This is why" is also a good explanation.

She believes that we do make choices as she says in the end of the video "so that you don't have free will doesn't mean you don't make decisions. Of course you make decisions. You decided to watch this video, didn't you? Good choice by the way".

Her point, I think, is that the brain does unconsciously make the calculation over what we want when we are in a situation to choose from different alternatives such as "what do I want to eat for dinner", the brain then does unconsciously do the calculation and the result of this calculation that is the choice pops up in our consciousness.

So the will is not "free" but still it is our will, choices and wants.

Sounds realistic. 😊

[cmvamerica]

I believe in free will; I have no choice.

[umbrosia]

I think we have have both free will and not free will. If we are the unpredictable conscious, then it means, that this conscious still thinks somehow and it makes decisions. Like being in a family. You can't decide in which family you are born into, but how you what to deal with this family.

[peterday]

What if the question isn't whether you have free will or not, but whether the "you" that you believe yourself to be is the real you? Will is in the gut, not in the head. The person is a dream in the imagination.