[ExI] Free will was: Everett worlds

[SR Ballard]

In that case going along with my preferences (eating cake) or going against my preferences (going for a jog) is an act of my will.

One thing that is not a choice is having a chemical imbalance. But I can exercise my will to take medicine to treat it. 

I don’t understand how I can only have free will when I am unable to make meaningful choices. Please explain. 

I will try to say what you said in different words: 

> You can *only* have control over your actions if they

Free will only exists if 

> are determined by your preferences, values, knowledge of the world and so on,

Your actions are controlled by your knowledge

> which are acquired through experience and encoded in your brain.

Which you get by doing things.

> If your actions were not determined

If your actions were not controlled

> it would mean that they happened for no reason at all,

It would mean they were random

> not even a bad reason. If you had this sort of “free will” you would be unable to function and would die.

If your choices are random you would die.

> Criminal behaviour would be the least of your problems.
> 
> People who worry that they could not be free if their actions were determined often have not considered what the alternative would mean.

Free will is the ability to choose. Do I want cake or pie? Will I take the train or will I drive? Will I cross the road now or after this car passes.

My actions are not controlled by my preferences and knowledge,  I choose my actions by taking into account my preferences and knowledge.

Every situation you will be in will always be different because you have had different experiences prior to that repetition of the situation. 

“A man can never cross the same river twice.” Both the man and the river are different.

SR Ballard

> On Aug 17, 2020, at 11:14 AM, Stathis Papaioannou via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On Tue, 18 Aug 2020 at 01:55, SR Ballard via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>> I think “free will” is a bit like Pascal’s Wager.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> If free will is real and you think it is real, then you will see yourself as a free agent, and take responsibility for yourself and your actions, intentionally working to better things. You will put murderers in jail.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> If free will is real and you think it is not, you can and will excuse all manner of immorality, sloth, and cruelty because they couldn’t be avoided. You probably put murderers in jail, but it’s kind of stupid because from your perspective they never decided to kill anyone. Killing someone was something they would be completely unable to prevent.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> If free will is not real, then your belief in it does not change your actions. The chain of cause and effect completely controls every aspect of your existence, you cannot make any real change in the world. With a good enough computer (and a good enough measure of initial conditions) you could model every single part of the universe and tell me exactly what I will have for breakfast on 17 Jan 2035. Murderers will be put in prison or not, based completely on initial conditions.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> So if free will does exist and you don’t believe in it, you introduce negatives. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> If free will doesn’t exist, it doesn’t matter because it changes nothing, and I will have whatever belief I will have regardless of my own “agency”, so it’s pointless to try to change my mind.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> So believing that I have meaningful control is either essential to being a good member of society, or absolutely unimportant.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Believing I do not have meaningful control is actively negative, or absolutely unimportant.
> 
> You can *only* have control over your actions if they are determined by your preferences, values, knowledge of the world and so on, which are acquired through experience and encoded in your brain. If your actions were not determined it would mean that they happened for no reason at all, not even a bad reason. If you had this sort of “free will” you would be unable to function and would die. Criminal behaviour would be the least of your problems.
> 
> People who worry that they could not be free if their actions were determined often have not considered what the alternative would mean.
> -- 
> Stathis Papaioannou
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