Megaton666
Swampert Trainer
Im curious about what people think. as for me, no. I have my reasons but im way to tired to explain right now.
-
We are currently experiencing a flood of requests from bots scraping the forums. Unfortunately it has gotten to the point where it is negatively impacting the site. As a result the forums may be slow and you may periodically experiance an error message. We are aware of the problem and apologize for the inconvenience.
-
Be sure to join the discussion on our discord at: Discord.gg/serebii
Do you believe in free will?
- Thread starter Megaton666
- Start date
CSolarstorm
New spicy version
It depends on how you define free will.
All of the things we decide are inherently responses to our enviroment, which we can't change completely. So any choice we make isn't really our choice, it's a choice we learned from somewhere and executed because we had an belief for whatever informative reason, that it would be in our interests to make that choice at that moment.
If you believe free will is the blessing of following this system, then sure, free will exists. You could even see that we use our free will to believe in free will, considering it is nicer and more motivational to believe in infintely blessed spontenuity and individuality rather than a straightfoward system.
All of the things we decide are inherently responses to our enviroment, which we can't change completely. So any choice we make isn't really our choice, it's a choice we learned from somewhere and executed because we had an belief for whatever informative reason, that it would be in our interests to make that choice at that moment.
If you believe free will is the blessing of following this system, then sure, free will exists. You could even see that we use our free will to believe in free will, considering it is nicer and more motivational to believe in infintely blessed spontenuity and individuality rather than a straightfoward system.
PsychedelicJellyfish
formerly R. New
Yes, I do. I'm aware of my own decision-making and I don't subscribe to radical behaviourism (B. F. Skinner was a loon, albeit a very clever one), so I'm forced to conclude that I have free will. I don't know about the rest of you, though 
The_Boss_Giygas
I. F.E.E.L. G.O.O.D.
Yes, everyone has the will to choose, to decide, to think, to act, and so on. Those who feel like they have no will do have will they just don't know it or they choose not to use it for fear of what ever is preventing them from thinking for themselves, but the will is still there, only a robot that is controlled by some one else has no will.
You would have a case if cause and effect followed expected reactions in all cases. It doesn't.
Devastator2000
Are you high...?
My will is my will and nothing touches my will unless it's a bribe.
7 tyranitars
Well-Known Member
there are different theories about that we won't have free will but I would go for that we do have a free will ofcourse there is no way you would know for sure because if your controled you have no way of knowing if you are controled or not, megaton you should have added
'there is no way we can know' to the poll tho
'there is no way we can know' to the poll tho
FocusPresenceEndurance
Aspiring Author
I think that while we have the sensation of free will, such a concept really does not exist. We are a product of the events that have led up until this point. Our decisions we have made have already been determined by prior events. Of course there are so many variables in the universe that it would be essentially impossible to predict how we will act in the future. That is why it feels like we are making these decisions on our own. Our brains are bound to the same laws that the rest of the universe we live in is. Therefore, all the complex chemical reactions in our brains that give us our thought, memory and essentially what makes us who we are influence and are influenced by everything around us.
Now what does this mean for me? I generally tend not to think of this too much. It isn't because it gives me discomfort. It is because there really isn't point in thinking about it. The illusion of free will I have feels pretty darn real. So I continue to act as though the choices I make are my own. Like how I decided to post on this thread now.
Now what does this mean for me? I generally tend not to think of this too much. It isn't because it gives me discomfort. It is because there really isn't point in thinking about it. The illusion of free will I have feels pretty darn real. So I continue to act as though the choices I make are my own. Like how I decided to post on this thread now.
Bill Nye the Sneasel Guy
Well-Known Member
There's no way to tell whether or not, is there? It comes down to what you personally think.
I now think that we are perhaps not as free in our actions and thoughts as we rigorously convince ourselves.
I now think that we are perhaps not as free in our actions and thoughts as we rigorously convince ourselves.
The Director
Ancient Trainer
I don't believe in free will, because i don't believe something can ever be random.
This is how i see it.
If there are patterns in how things work then it implies there is an underlying law or factor, e.g. gravity.
Now you are always going to get slight errors of things not working completely to it for example air resistance and other things so small one cannot always predict it with the technology we have, are going to effect the results.
My opinion is that if you did a gravity test in a closed system with no interference of any kind then the test would always come out with the exact same results.
So if the universe is made up of constant laws and we are part of the universe, then no matter what, we are subservient to these laws and do not have free will. As we run to the rules of the universe, of energy and mass, which to me is all we are made of.
We have an illusion of free will because we can remember the past and think i could've done this. Which is lie. The atoms in your brain that made you take the decision went in a certain direction because of the laws of the universe.
Why do we have this illusion of free will?
A bi-product of ones memory and the trial and error system. Or plainly if one is in a similar situation one will apply previous experience to the situation.
I'll give an example.
A person has a choice of two roads neither of them are sign posted, so he decides for his own reasons, to take the left road. He has a horrible experience of thorns and of other unplesantries. As a result he wishes he could go back and change his decision. Which is the trial and error method, he is now more likely in a similar situation to take the right path.
If one could not believe that what he did in the past could've of happened any other way they are not going learn from it. For example if a painter's ladder snapped for no obvious reason of their own, they would not learn anything as they don't believe they have any control over what had happened.
If however one sees they had been at fault, and they could've done something different they are more likely to use this experience later in life, and therefore more likely to survive.
Basically a belief in being able to do things differently in the future, keeps us alive, but also gives us the opinion of free will when we are merely reacting differently thanks to memory.
This is how i see it.
If there are patterns in how things work then it implies there is an underlying law or factor, e.g. gravity.
Now you are always going to get slight errors of things not working completely to it for example air resistance and other things so small one cannot always predict it with the technology we have, are going to effect the results.
My opinion is that if you did a gravity test in a closed system with no interference of any kind then the test would always come out with the exact same results.
So if the universe is made up of constant laws and we are part of the universe, then no matter what, we are subservient to these laws and do not have free will. As we run to the rules of the universe, of energy and mass, which to me is all we are made of.
We have an illusion of free will because we can remember the past and think i could've done this. Which is lie. The atoms in your brain that made you take the decision went in a certain direction because of the laws of the universe.
Why do we have this illusion of free will?
A bi-product of ones memory and the trial and error system. Or plainly if one is in a similar situation one will apply previous experience to the situation.
I'll give an example.
A person has a choice of two roads neither of them are sign posted, so he decides for his own reasons, to take the left road. He has a horrible experience of thorns and of other unplesantries. As a result he wishes he could go back and change his decision. Which is the trial and error method, he is now more likely in a similar situation to take the right path.
If one could not believe that what he did in the past could've of happened any other way they are not going learn from it. For example if a painter's ladder snapped for no obvious reason of their own, they would not learn anything as they don't believe they have any control over what had happened.
If however one sees they had been at fault, and they could've done something different they are more likely to use this experience later in life, and therefore more likely to survive.
Basically a belief in being able to do things differently in the future, keeps us alive, but also gives us the opinion of free will when we are merely reacting differently thanks to memory.
To put it simply no I don't.
To put it more eloquently. I believe that we are all goverened by our environment and expieriences from our life. This idea is commonly referred to as, dangit I can't remember and I don't feel lie getting the book but you can read about it in Duane P. Schults' A History In Modern Psychology[\a] if anyone knows what this idea is plz pm me about it.
To put it more eloquently. I believe that we are all goverened by our environment and expieriences from our life. This idea is commonly referred to as, dangit I can't remember and I don't feel lie getting the book but you can read about it in Duane P. Schults' A History In Modern Psychology[\a] if anyone knows what this idea is plz pm me about it.
Murky_Night
Jirafa
I believe in free will, but i believe in laws. Humanity would have chaos if it was not for laws, so complete free will is stupid. My definition of free will in this argument is freedom of religion, press, sexuality, life style, hair style, clothing, etc. But i person should not do as he/she pleases at any moment. It would be, absolute chaos.
Soiherdyouliekme
Mud. Kip.
Maybe you've got a different definition of free will as everybody else. Having free will means that the person can decide their actions for themselves.
To put it this way, the law pretty much everywhere says that murder is illegal. Still, however, people make the conscious decision to kill, it's not as if there is some invisible force stopping them because it's in the law.
Devastator2000
Are you high...?
The law is Consequence. Nothing else.
CSolarstorm
New spicy version
I voted PRAISE TEH LAWWRD not because I believe in an absolute lord and ruler, but because I can't pick yes or no. I think free will as a concept of being able to make your own choices is true, but behaviorism and consequence and reaction and all that ultimately makes all the choices you'll make.
I think maybe one of the distinctions between a human and a machine is that machines are designed for use by us; we weren't designed by anything with an ego or an agenda or something that wanted to use us. Otherwise both us and machines technically do the same thing, respond to stimuli. Machines respond to what people do to them and people respond to what the noncaring environment does to them. There's no distinction based on the fact that we intend to use machines, really all we do is affect them to get them to have the desired effect on us, but on the other hand the environment which has no agenda, desire or want to use anything and just randomly operates for billions of years created a more complex machine than anything we could come up with.
So, tl;dr - I believe we are so complex that we can call what we have free will, but nothing is absolute, and considering the continuing effects our genesis and environment has on us, that sets certain parameters to what "free will" really is. Like voting in an election. You have choices, but the parameters are such that you can't actually vote for anything.
I think maybe one of the distinctions between a human and a machine is that machines are designed for use by us; we weren't designed by anything with an ego or an agenda or something that wanted to use us. Otherwise both us and machines technically do the same thing, respond to stimuli. Machines respond to what people do to them and people respond to what the noncaring environment does to them. There's no distinction based on the fact that we intend to use machines, really all we do is affect them to get them to have the desired effect on us, but on the other hand the environment which has no agenda, desire or want to use anything and just randomly operates for billions of years created a more complex machine than anything we could come up with.
So, tl;dr - I believe we are so complex that we can call what we have free will, but nothing is absolute, and considering the continuing effects our genesis and environment has on us, that sets certain parameters to what "free will" really is. Like voting in an election. You have choices, but the parameters are such that you can't actually vote for anything.