Giovanni

I think it's really hard to reconcile what we know about physics with what we intend as "free will"

Giovanni

After all we are physical entities, and the same is our brain, so a "free will" would somehow defy the laws of physics to have the ability to "choose"

Giovanni

Daniel Dennett instead argues that in some sense we have free will

Giovanni

most notably in this public talk:

Giovanni

Btw for all those who love Dilbert

Fabio

I think we have free will in part, because we have a number of choices alternatives more extensive.

Giovanni

Yes, but this "choices" are simply the product of physical laws

Giobbe

Interesting topic!...Unfortunately neuroscience and psychology seem to be just at the beginning, in attempt to understand what could be and how could work "self-consciousness"...Maybe the "heart" of the problem lies in the concept of "information"...For example, from a physical analysis of a computer memory, is difficult to know something about the informations that the device actually contains

Giovanni

that's true, self-consciousness is still a great mistery, but I cannot see how the fact that it's not very well understood could imply the existence of free will

Giobbe

In fact we still can not make judgments on a scientific level about it, with current knowledge. Self-consciousness and free will are very connected (don't you think?) , so, since we know little about the first, we hardly could know much more about the second...

Giovanni

They're very connected indeed. What I'm arguing is that we don't need to understand consciousness to say that, however it may work, the laws of physics are simply incompatible with the notion of free will

Giovanni

If you try to concentrate on your thoughts, for example, you'll see that they simply arise in your mind

Giovanni

After all, there isn't anything else they could do. You can't think what you're going to think.

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