It’s not a pleasant thought, that we are merely powerless passengers within our own bodies; but the argument is much more compelling than you may think.
I appreciate that it is a pretty insulting accusation; to imply that someone has no free will but the question is not without its merits.
The eternal chain reaction
As far as we are aware, the Universe is nothing more than a chain reaction which has been running for as long as time itself. For some reason, the Big Bang brought the universe into being. For some reason, matter (rather than antimatter) became the dominant form of stuff within the universe. Due to the laws of physics (gravity in particular) this matter started grouping together to form galaxies, stars, planets and moons. Possibly due to the laws of thermodynamics, on at least one planet the matter started to use energy to create more complex arrangements of itself; a little something that we call life. Due the competition between different life forms and the continually changing environment on our planet, the life evolved until they became the modern human species; you and me. After some 14 billion of years of cause-and-effect chain reaction within our universe, along comes a species with the optimism to believe that they somehow have a choice over where the future will take them.
Everywhere we look we find things that are predictable. The laws of physics are the most obvious example of this. Dropping things will see them fall down, sound and light both move away from their source and a toddler will only say that they need the toilet after you’ve already sat down to start dinner, regardless of how many times you asked them beforehand.
The predictable future
We humans are also predictable. I predict that you would accept money, offered from a reputable source with no strings attached. I predict that you would not intentionally harm a small child. I also predict that you are still not convinced about my argument that we do not have free will.
Whilst all these predictions may not be true for you, I would be surprised if I didn’t score at least 2 out of 3 as the answers are what many would describe as “no-brainers”. But ask me to pick whether you would choose a lunch of smoked salmon or cheesy-pasta then I would have a 50/50 chance of guessing. If I had to guess for Matilda then I would have a very high degree of certainty as I have more knowledge on that subject. Wherever we look, the more that we know about a subject, the better our ability to predict the future and it is no different with our choices. This predictability is a big problem for free will; unless we are all just choosing to act in predictable ways.
Our ability to predict the future fails when we don’t have enough knowledge to work out the outcome. Our thought processes are so complex that there can be scenarios where we can’t even predict what we are going to do ourselves, let alone what anyone else will do; but not being able to predict an outcome does not mean that it is not possible. Meteor showers used to be considered as acts of the Gods, now my smartphone gives me an alert when one is going to happen!
The outcome of every decision made…ever
All of the decisions that we make boil down to two key factors; what will maximise my good feelings and what will minimise my bad feelings. Trying to satisfy these two basic conditions can result in impossibly complex thoughts on a vast array of subjects but ultimately we are looking to achieve these two simple and predictable goals.
Unfortunately, I cannot demonstrate this lack of free will to you as every decision that we make in life is a one off that can never be repeated, so we can’t go back to show that we could have chosen the other option.
One of the reasons that people resist this idea, that there is no free will, is because it sounds like it challenges the idea that we are conscious individuals with deep and meaningful thoughts and suggests that we are nothing more than mindless creatures of blind instinct. I don’t think that it does. Our minds and our sense of self are clearly very real, but what are they other than the accumulation of all of the opinions and experiences that we have acquired over the course of our lives? Take phobias for example: People have fears (often as a result of a traumatic childhood experience) and many of those people dislike that they have them, but they can’t just choose to not be afraid any more. How come we can accept our lack of free will in this instance of our behaviour but not in others?
How the past determines our will
Every decision that we make draws on all of our experiences, beliefs, knowledge and opinions and we make the best decision that we can to maximise our sense of wellbeing with what we have available to us at that time. Often we will put off tricky decisions to allow ourselves time to gather more information to help with the decision but in the end, we make those choices according to a finite number of factors. If you know those factors then you know the decision that will be made. Fully predetermined but far too complex to accurately predict.
It is this inability to predict which creates the illusion of free will. There are many ways in which we can be influenced to give certain responses or think in certain ways (as advertisers, salesmen and magicians well know) and when it is pointed out to us that we have fallen into one of these traps we feel cheated and belittled; much like we do when people suggest that we have no free will.
I may not have convinced you of your lack of free will, I accept that it is a tricky sell. But hopefully I have a least given you pause for thought. I have given you my evidence as to why we may be slaves to the past, feel free to give me your evidence as to why we are not.
Matilda’s Lab ©2017. https://twitter.com/matildaslab.
Matilda’s Lab tries to help explain complex science to children. I keep the content accurate but it is necessary to oversimplify things. If you think that any of the facts here are wrong then please get in touch so that I can correct it.
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You have brought up a very interesting premise. You are correct. I don’t like the thought that I don’t have free will. To counter your argument, people do make changes. They quit smoking, start exercising, stop a bad habit. The change is usually considered necessary for one’s health but they still chose to make the change. I am deathly afraid of drowning, because I almost did as a young child but I still go fishing out on the ocean, sleep down in the bunk area even through I know of people who have died that way. Pre-pandemic, I would still fly over bodies of water. I can honestly say, each time I feel the fear rising but I choose to go ahead and do what I want to do. Maybe that isn’t free will but to me, if I let the fear own me, I would never go near water but I do. With all this said, I can see where I am very predictable in many ways. My personality is consistent. I believe if I want to change it, I could although to your argument, it wouldn’t be easy and most likely wouldn’t really be changed, just look like it was.
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Thank you for sharing. I haven’t intended this piece to read as if people can’t change, clearly they can. My take on that would be that the change would be driven by factors which, if known by an external viewer, could make the change predictable. Likewise, people do face their fears but not for the sake of it, there will be another desire or need that will trump the instinct to avoid it. It’s certainly a complex subject and unpredictability isn’t the same as showing something is not predetermined, it just means that we don’t know enough about the factors influencing it. Ultimately, provided that we feel like we have free will, does it really make a difference whether we actually have it or not?
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It is a very interesting topic and i spent some time thinking about it. I really don’t know if we do or don’t but regardless, I completely agree with your last sentence. Without thinking we have free will I don’t think there would be much purpose in life. This can evolve into a discussion about fate, I enjoyed your blog post and I enjoyed thinking about it. Thank you for writing back. I look forward to reading more of your posts.
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