It’s unknown whether “free will” exists and what “possible” actually means on the physical level. Whether Copenhagen, MWI, or other high-level models are used, you’re going to come up against the question: why do I experience some things and not others?
If you believe MWI, it’s fairly easy to come up with a description of action and morality that looks like “what decisions I make help determine which universe is experienced by those versions of me”. If you lean toward Copenhagen, you STILL have to explain how anything like a decision exists, and how that influences the wave collapse in any way, and it’s going to look roughly the same—actions you choose have some influence over what you experience in the future.
I have yet to think of and execute a test that showed my own free will to be irrelevant or nonexistent. Causality and choice are part of my perceptive model of my universe. I can’t prove that it’s “real”, as opposed to simulated or back-inserted into my memory or just what brains do after experiences. But I can’t prove otherwise either. I’m open to suggestions on how to operationalize this question, and until then I’m going with my model.
That’s very interesting. My model is precisely the opposite, that free will is an illusion if we accept any of the theories. From the moment the universe began, it can only proceed on one path or all paths (each quantum event triggers a split so all possible actions happen). Either way, free will is an illusion.
I live my life entirely free from this conclusion, because not believing in free will will soon land you in a place where the doors don’t open from the inside.
It’s unknown whether “free will” exists and what “possible” actually means on the physical level. Whether Copenhagen, MWI, or other high-level models are used, you’re going to come up against the question: why do I experience some things and not others?
If you believe MWI, it’s fairly easy to come up with a description of action and morality that looks like “what decisions I make help determine which universe is experienced by those versions of me”. If you lean toward Copenhagen, you STILL have to explain how anything like a decision exists, and how that influences the wave collapse in any way, and it’s going to look roughly the same—actions you choose have some influence over what you experience in the future.
I have yet to think of and execute a test that showed my own free will to be irrelevant or nonexistent. Causality and choice are part of my perceptive model of my universe. I can’t prove that it’s “real”, as opposed to simulated or back-inserted into my memory or just what brains do after experiences. But I can’t prove otherwise either. I’m open to suggestions on how to operationalize this question, and until then I’m going with my model.
That’s very interesting. My model is precisely the opposite, that free will is an illusion if we accept any of the theories. From the moment the universe began, it can only proceed on one path or all paths (each quantum event triggers a split so all possible actions happen). Either way, free will is an illusion.
I live my life entirely free from this conclusion, because not believing in free will will soon land you in a place where the doors don’t open from the inside.
What about one path with indeterminism? Copenhagen, IOW.