If the universe can be expressed as numbers plugged into an equation, doesn't that alone answer the question of free will?
If the universe can be expressed as numbers plugged into an equation
That "if" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there
There are several fields of study dedicated to that if. And a galactic supercomputer dedicated to finding the question.
Exactly. If the laws of physics are absolute, then the brain—which is made of atoms—must follow those laws. Every choice is just a chemical reaction following a set path. The fact that we don't have a computer 'big' enough to calculate it doesn't mean the equation doesn't exist.
It is becoming increasingly clear in quantum mechanics that the universe cannot be expressed as number plugged into an equation.
That’s a very valid point ☺️
The numbers don't lie.
What if the equation is a wave function? And the free will is collapsed quantum state?
When a quantum event collapses in the brain, the result is unpredictable yet this randomness is still not something you control. True free will would require a selection process that is neither purely random nor strictly deterministic, but genuinely willed. Randomness just introduces chaos; it doesn’t produce the sense of "I chose this".
Well, the wave function collapsing to that universal reality 🙃
Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage