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Is there free will?
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this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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That "if" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there
this to me is the problem with her argument. In order to process the data to get find out the answer if you had all the data you would need something larger than existence to take it in and do it. We effectively have free will which is fine to me.
The question is not whether that expression can actually be processed within our existence, but whether everything is expressible in such a way that it's theoretically deterministic.
To me, having"free will" is independent of our capacity of knowledge. For example: if you tell me that, for whatever reason, it's impossible to really know how does a computer work, that would not mean that computers have "free will". It just means that there would be limits to our capacity for knowledge.
Yeah I agree the issue isn't whether we can actually process the data within our existence but whether everything is theoretically expressible in a deterministic equation. Our limited knowledge capacity doesn't disprove determinism it just shows our epistemic boundaries. Not fully understanding how a computer works doesn't mean the computer has free will, it only means we have limits to our knowledge.
That is what I said.
The person I was responding to was saying that " We effectively have free will " just because "you would need something larger than existence " to process the data that predicts the Universe.
I was giving the example of the computer as a way to show that this is not typically the way we udnerstand "free will", it's not about actually being able to predict what will happen.
Yeah and I agree.
Yeah and I agree