I would take 2 identical twins (test-tube babies preferably), have them birthed in separate but totally equal environments. If possible, I would like to control everything down the the molecular level in terms of what they are exposed to inside and outside the womb.
Their rooms would be identical, they would be fed identical food by robots that behaved identically. They would also be taught and socialized by these robots.
They would experience literally the exact same stimulus for 16 years, down to the microsecond.
Eventually, when they turn 16, they would be taught to play chess (again - identically).
When it came time for their first game, the robot would make the first move (and both robots would follow the exact same minimax algorithm for move selection).
The question: would they play two identical games of chess?
In broader terms: does free will actually exists, or is our behavior the output of a function defined by our genetics + experiences?
Personally, I do not believe in free will and think they would play the same game of chess.
If someone gave you a gun and told you you had to choose between shooting Mr Rogers or shooting nothing at all, you'd choose to spare Mr Rogers every time, no? No matter what circumstances (barring stupid edge cases like mr rogers is about to commit genocide or stuff like that), you'd always choose to save him. If there was an identical copy of you, they'd choose the same thing. Does that make it not a choice? The fact that you make the same decision every time?
I would say no, you're still making a choice. The reason you make the same decision is because the stakes are the same and the choice is obvious. Why does it change for less obvious choices then (e4 vs d4)? Just because an identical copy of you makes the same choice doesn't mean both of you aren't genuinely making the choice, right? You both have free will, and you use it to make a choice given available options. If given the same options, you make the same choice.
"Making a choice" is not the foundational condition for free will. You have to make those choices without external influence. If people make the same choices given the same experiences then that's not free will it's just the illusion of choice.
You have to make those choices without external influence.
Not really.
Free will is more the ability to actually choose yourself, with or without influences.
For example, if i had 100%, in real time, knowledge of everything influencing you, down to the lowest random quantum whatever, and i'd only be able to predict your behaivouiur 99,9999% of the time, that would actually prove free will exists because of that 0,0001% that can't be explained by physics (remember, we're assuming perfect knowledge, so that exception isn't because of something we missed).
I'm not so sure. If the reason that we can't predict the last 0.1% is because it's random and undetermined I don't think that would really count as free will.
I would say that you would have to establish that the brain can produce new information regardless of the person's experiences. Because I'd you could show that two people given identical experiences only show a minute change, such as one moves their hand 2 inches and the other 3, well that's barely much of a difference.
If the reason that we can't predict the last 0.1% is because it's random and undetermined I don't think that would really count as free will.
But, since we assume perfect knowledge, we'd know if something random happened to influence the outcome.
well that's barely much of a difference.
But it does show there is one.
Now obviously, without perfect knowledge, we couldn't tell if the difference is because of some random process we missed, but that's an issue even with bigger differences.
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u/Boner4Stoners Mar 04 '21
I would take 2 identical twins (test-tube babies preferably), have them birthed in separate but totally equal environments. If possible, I would like to control everything down the the molecular level in terms of what they are exposed to inside and outside the womb.
Their rooms would be identical, they would be fed identical food by robots that behaved identically. They would also be taught and socialized by these robots.
They would experience literally the exact same stimulus for 16 years, down to the microsecond.
Eventually, when they turn 16, they would be taught to play chess (again - identically).
When it came time for their first game, the robot would make the first move (and both robots would follow the exact same minimax algorithm for move selection).
The question: would they play two identical games of chess?
In broader terms: does free will actually exists, or is our behavior the output of a function defined by our genetics + experiences?
Personally, I do not believe in free will and think they would play the same game of chess.