Free Will

[bennyboy]

I get it.  You are talking about determinism.

What's the point of consciousness, by which I mean the ability to actually experience qualia, then?  If it's all just brain "doing stuff," then what's the point of having an agent around to serve only as a sideline observer?  Why have the illusion of free will at all?  That's a pretty curious byproduct, I'd say.

Not really.  Hit ctrl/alt/delete.  Whats the point of that screen in front of you...it's not like it helps the system to "do stuff".  It would "do stuff" without that screen.   Utilities exist...because they have utility.  

Do you actually have the "illusion" of free will...or do you just have the experience of will?  I know that in my case, it's only the latter.  I can generally identify  moments when my will is constrained...and when I can;t...I really don;t know why it is what is is.  To claim that I experience it to be free would be claiming one thing too many.   

Freedom isn't a magical unicorn. If it's a word to have meaning, it has to be meaningful. I say freedom means unobstructed and uncompelled, and since we're talking about the experience of agency, I'd even go so far as to say the FEELING of being unobstructed or uncompelled IS being unobstructed or uncompelled. For all I know, I'm a brain in a jar. But until that stops me from having the experience of buying and enjoying my ice cream of choice, it matters not at all to me.