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Do you have free will?

Started by Savonarola, June 04, 2014, 04:25:26 PM

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Do you have free will?

I'm predestined to vote yes
9 (30%)
I've decided to vote no
10 (33.3%)
Of course, I have every Rush single
11 (36.7%)

Total Members Voted: 30

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Savonarola

June 04, 2014, 04:25:26 PM
I've been listening to a series of lectures by Richard Muller (the physicist who theorized the existence of the sun's evil twin, Nemesis.)  One of the things he discussed was tachyons (which are super-luminal particles.)

If I had a tachyon ray gun, and were to shoot you from your frame of reference the ray would hit you and then I would pull the trigger.  In relativity theory all frames of reference are valid; so you being shot violates causality, I must pull the trigger after you have been shot.

Muller said he made the decision not to work in the field of tachyons because he believes he has free will; (at least in the very limited sense that he could decide not to shoot someone) so in his conception of the universe tachyons cannot exist.

I was curious what Languish thought; are you master of your fate, or is your universe filled with tachyons?

I also chose to put in an answer for Josephus... or did I?  :unsure:
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

The Brain

#1
June 04, 2014, 04:29:55 PM
How would you detect a difference between free will and not free will?
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Legbiter

#2
June 04, 2014, 04:32:43 PM
Our biological hardware imposes certain limits, but within those, yes, we have a certain amount of leeway/free will. I can postpone eating for a while and come to no great harm but not indefinetly, etc.
Posted using 100% recycled electrons.

DGuller

#4
June 04, 2014, 04:38:37 PM
 :hmm: I keep going back and forth between poll choices.

The Brain

#5
June 04, 2014, 04:42:21 PM
Quote from: DGuller on June 04, 2014, 04:38:37 PM
:hmm: I keep going back and forth between poll choices.

Check out the poll questions. I hear they're awesome.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Jacob

#6
June 04, 2014, 04:47:14 PM
I decided to vote no. I mostly do what my wife tells me to do.

Eddie Teach

#7
June 04, 2014, 04:51:14 PM
I am the slave of my fate,
I am the seaman of my soul.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

mongers

#8
June 04, 2014, 04:53:44 PM
This poll annoys me, cos now I'm gonna have to go and listen to some Rush.   :cool:
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"

Viking

#9
June 04, 2014, 04:57:22 PM
The question confused me a bit.. what kind of free will? there are many kinds.

In any case the brain is a material thing and the mind is an appearance of agency the brain uses to perform tasks.
First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.

Liep

#10
June 04, 2014, 04:59:57 PM
Perhaps.
"Af alle latterlige Ting forekommer det mig at være det allerlatterligste at have travlt" - Kierkegaard

"JamenajmenømahrmDÆ!DÆ! Æhvnårvaæhvadlelæh! Hvor er det crazy, det her, mand!" - Uffe Elbæk

Ideologue

#11
June 04, 2014, 05:00:17 PM
No.  There is no mechanism that can generate free will.  Even in the most arcane conceptions invoking the Many Worlds or other quantum concepts, e.g. orchestrated objective reduction (Roger Penrose's deal), you replace predestination with randomness.

What's interesting is if (taking MWI as true) the ability of conscious entities to process information constrains physical possibilities, or if some of the really stupid impulses humans (and other animals) have are a result of all possible states being represented in the multiverse, with idiots being pushed out by smarter alternate-universe analogues who make better decisions.  I call it the Many Morons Interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Kinemalogue
Current reviews: The 'Burbs (9/10); Gremlins 2: The New Batch (9/10); John Wick: Chapter 2 (9/10); A Cure For Wellness (4/10)

Valmy

#12
June 04, 2014, 05:02:42 PM
Quote from: Viking on June 04, 2014, 04:57:22 PM
The question confused me a bit.. what kind of free will? there are many kinds.

In any case the brain is a material thing and the mind is an appearance of agency the brain uses to perform tasks.

What sort of tasks?  Is my brain doing some sort of task and so forces me to post on Languish?  Well that would explain some things.
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

Savonarola

#13
June 04, 2014, 05:03:45 PM
Quote from: Viking on June 04, 2014, 04:57:22 PM
The question confused me a bit.. what kind of free will? there are many kinds.

Choose your favorite; if you have choice.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

The Brain

#14
June 04, 2014, 05:08:37 PM
Quote from: Viking on June 04, 2014, 04:57:22 PM
The question confused me a bit.. what kind of free will? there are many kinds.

In any case the brain is a material thing and the mind is an appearance of agency the brain uses to perform tasks.

And I live in a material world.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.
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