Free will

[ANNEE]

Depends on how/what you believe.

If you believe this is a simulation for whatever reason -- do you have a hand in planning the program?

Do you want a more structured "life" or more free will?

Are you here for yourself or to help someone else?

Many variables -- not a one fits all.

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

This tends to be an entertaining subject, in my experience.

So, free will. What is it, and do we have it?

Free choice limited to the options experience gives you.

Like if a car brakes hard in front of you and forces you to respond, you can go left, right, brake, run into them, a combination of that, and you can even try to jump out of the car, but you can't fly over it or turn into a butterfly.

Free will is like that. You can choose from a set range of moves but it's built on what came before, that can't be undone. You can influence it by making better conscious and unconscious decisions (like leave 3 seconds), but you only have so much control.

Which is more than powerless, but still not much less than indifferent. The program is suppose to run that way, it allows for far less base code.

ETA: 

I also feel any belief of real-time control is likely just a certainty of statistics.  And in the equilibrium of it all shit can easily and immediately be balanced by an appearance of grace.   Statistically speaking, you can't have grace without shit. And sometimes they happen in rapid succession.

All i feel you can do is make grace more likely and shit more rare.  It just seems the more rare you make shit, the harder it hits when it comes.

[Ignorant]

What is it?

That little voice in your head that says turn into the traffic at a roundabout.

Do we have it?

Hopefully not.

We have a poetic name for that: The call of the void. It's mildly distressing when you consider, while driving in traffic, that almost everyone around you has that thought sometimes.

[Ignorant]

Am I predicable? Are you?

What if I said "yes"? Would you argue we don't have free will?

[Ignorant]

Of course we have free will. What makes anyone think we don't? I need to hear that side of the argument.

Commonly people on the other side of the argument bring up the apparent fact that our brains are just very complex machines that respond to external stimuli in predetermined ways. They then argue that, if other machines don't have free will, then neither do we.

[FlyersFan]

What's the point of the show if the outcome is already known?

Who says there has to be 'a point' ... besides organized religion.
Maybe there is no point. 
hmmm .... theres something to think about ...

[Ray1990]

We have a poetic name for that: The call of the void. It's mildly distressing when you consider, while driving in traffic, that almost everyone around you has that thought sometimes.

Yeah it's a fairly common urge, in my experience it's always been a raw thought like an urge, no language or imaging.

I figured a while ago that the only place to prove freewill would be in the mind which makes the journey somewhat pointless anyway. We tend to be what we are and any deviation from that will always land within the boundaries of being human.

[Ignorant]

Who says there has to be 'a point' ... besides organized religion.
Maybe there is no point. 
hmmm .... theres something to think about ...

There happens to be an active discussion about that, starting here.

[Steamer]

Word -‘WILL’. became a funny reminder of;
     ‘WHERE THERES A WILL, THERES A RELATIVE’.

No sweat, i’ll see myself out …. Grin …. Bye

[Sirius]

What if I said "yes"? Would you argue we don't have free will?

Do you submit to a higher authority..do these exist? I heard Michael replaced his flaming sword with a hammer

st. Teresa didn't just declare her work as that from God, she submitted it to authorities

Higher authorities can subjugate your will, we do this willingly or you know..the hammer

The topic becomes intricate with the introduction of memes and it's silly, fun and viral initially. Replace the meme of Wednesday with war and what propagates? How are children raised during a time of war, what lessons do we instill in them? What stories do they hear that becomes their fantasy, what are they told for survival? It permeates all of civilization, there is no escaping. Echo's bouncing from all the walls. The children will grow up and teach the lessons they learned to the new generation. Blood feuds never end while blood flows. We pretend these are distant events.

No matter where you are born on this earth, our world has conflict and the echo's will find you and move you. Waves that cross amplify or cancel each other. Love and war. 

Of course if you are a god unto yourself and everything below you is a machine, then it is easy. You enjoy the entertainment and fight for infinity. Empathy becomes counter to survival, there is no spirit in a machine or is there? We worship technology. Lacking the powers of a god we create it and it controls our lives. This is reflected in animism, all things has spirt. Google   all machines...

Imagine navigating with the stars!