@Rwa001,
Rwa001;163637 wrote:This is an interesting and excellent point. It reminds me of a hypothetical we discussed in my Minds and Machines class:
If a world were created as a complete mirror of our current world, that is to say, the physics are identical, and the version of yourself on that planet is in every every way similar to yourself (upbringing and so forth too), would that person be in the exact same position as your original self in 50 years?
It becomes difficult to articulate why there would be a difference, which would be at ends with the idea of free will that we all cherish. It seems to me that we are slaves (at least currently) to our biology and the physics that make up our world. It becomes odd to me when I'm in a situation and feel about 75% sure that I'm making the right decision. This doesn't mean that 3/4 times I would make that decision, but rather that 100% of the time I will favor one choice over another.
Consciousness is crazy my friends.
I have brought this up before but, at times, free will, to me, only comes into play when we consciously decide to resist the natural flow of events.
In nature, I would say, typically most things, including animals, take the path of least resistance. There are times when we as humans know what we ought to be doing(or are at least deliberating a choice between something which would be easy and something that would be more effort consuming) but doing so would require an act against the natural flow of events at the time.
For example, say someone is walking along at a somewhat brisk pace(maybe their late for something) and they accidentally drop a small piece of unimportant paper but notice themselves do so. I would say most would heavily consider continuing on. This, to me, would be going with the natural flow of events. In this situation, I think one has the opportunity to employ their free will by resisting this flow and stopping and going back to pick it up and dispose of it properly.
Now this is quite an arbitrary analogy but I think it at least exemplify what I mean when I say resist the natural flow of events.
Having said that, I will note that going with the natural flow of events is not a bad things in and of itself. But in each moment we must attempt to be conscious of both the natural flow of events and what is important to us so that we can make sure we are flowing in the direction we ought to be.