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this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2025
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No free will would depend on everything being predeterminable. Which isn't. Look up quantum physics, if you missed it in school.
It's either deterministic or chaotic. There's no in-between.
Free will and consciousness are merely illusions caused by the way our brains work.
Overtuned pattern recognition machines recognising spurious patterns in themselves.
On a low level, our brains can't really understand that correlation doesn't imply causation. It's an evolutionary imperative: if we don't see a tiger where there isn't one we might fail to see one when it's really there, and therefore fail to pass on our less overtuned pattern recognition genes.
So we end up seeing tigers in the sky, and free will in our actions, and consciousness in our thoughts.
Which evolves deterministically undisturbed, or with complete randomness if you pick an interpretation that accepts the literal existence of measurement. Free will is very specifically neither of those.