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Is there free will?
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this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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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