[ExI] Bell's Inequality

[John Clark]

On Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 11:31 PM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:

​> ​
> I think it is safe to say that free will is solidly within the realm
> ​ ​
> of metaphysics and philosophy, and outside the realm of physics
> ​ ​
> proper.
>

I think it's safe to say "free will" is not
​ ​
solidly within the realm
​ ​
of
​ ​
anything because nobody knows what the term means.
​ ​
It's very strange, most of the time people expect, almost demand, that
individuals have a reason for their actions; if you see someone behaving in
an unexpected way you don't understand you ask them "why did you do that?",
if their response is
​ ​
"no reason" you'd probably conclude they are a bit nuts, or at least
unreasonable. But when talking about "free will" people suddenly switch
gears, now they don't want there to be a reason for their actions, and they
don't want there to be no reason for their actions either because then they
would be random. The truth is they don't know what they want when they talk
about "free will". If somebody will be unhappy if X is true and they will
be unhappy if X is not true then I fear they are destined to be unhappy.
>
>
>
>> ​>​
>>  "Free Will" is the inability to know what you've decided to do before
>> ​ ​
>> you've decided to do it.
>
>
> ​> ​
> How about a modification: free will is the inability to know for sure
> ​ ​
> what your eventual decision will have been, before it is expressed in
> ​ ​
> conscious thought and action.


​I don't think it adds much to clarity to introduce an illusive ​
concept like consciousness ​into a explanation of free will. After all, in
the entire universe there is only one being that I have rock solid evidence
of being conscious, and unfortunately that evidence is available only to
me.

>
​> ​
> The moment you ask why superdeterminism selects a certain way is the
> ​ ​
> moment you stop talking about science, and start talking about free
> ​ ​
> will.
>

​If ​
superdeterminism
​is true then there is no "why", things just are the way they are and could
not have been different and that's that. ​The entire concept of cause and
effect goes out the window. And even then, even if all that is true, I
still don't know what "free will" means, much less know if humans have that
property or not.


 John K Clark
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