RE: Oh no not another free will thread.
April 23, 2018 at 8:19 am
(This post was last modified: April 23, 2018 at 8:20 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(April 23, 2018 at 8:05 am)bennyboy Wrote: I'm being a little bit lazy here, not having read 15 pages of undoubtedly brilliant philosophizing.
I'd define free will like this: It is the unfettered expression of the self in behavior.
This obviously cannot include variation in a given moment. You could not have made a different decision, because any decision other than the one you made would not have been a maximally perfect expression of the self. When I'm standing in front of a candy rack, and I choose a Mars Bar, you can argue that it's not free will because I'm just one node in a long behavioral chain that could in theory be traced all the way back to the Big Bang.
But as I see it, it is exactly for this reason that I AM free. I am a causal chokepoint, and whatever I decide, it turns out that is what I would have decided. I find this very comforting, and I game it like this: I do whatever I damn well please, because it turns out-- that crazy and spontaneous behavior was always going to be the one I exhibited.
I can't imagine a more freeing realization than that.
By that definition, conveyor sorters also have free will. I'm not saying it's a bad description of what free will is (as opposed to what we thought it was)...only noting it's inclusivity.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!