[FRIAM] freewill gedankenexperiment

[Prof David West]

Imagine you are in a spaceship. You have a main thruster and two pairs of opposed lateral thrusters. All thrusters have limited fuel supplies, preventing perpetual use. Other than that, you may activate any thruster, alone or in combination for any duration up to the limit of the fuel supply.

Call the ability to push buttons and fire thrusters at whim, with deliberation, accidentally, with intent, etc. "free will"with regard that/those act(s).

Recognize that the outcome/consequence of your acts of freewill — i.e. a ship trajectory — is determined by the attitude, vector, momentum (embodied history or previous free will actions), and the gravitational influence of every other mass in the Universe. (Even if the influence is below a threshold of reasonable measurement,)

Further recognize,  that for the outcome/consequence of your acts of freewill to have "meaning" — i.e. to ensure your arrival at Star Base Theta in the Altairian Sector — you need a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of celestial dynamics in order to take the right actions in the right degree at the right time.

Now imagine yourself a homunculus sitting in a hidden recess of your cerebellum, surrounded by a 767's worth of buttons, switches, instruments, dials, and computer interfaces. You still have a "fuel constraint' but the degrees of freedom and the combinatorial explosion of possible acts/actions is immense.

Call the ability to push buttons, flip switches, input computer commands, etc.; at whim, with deliberation, accidentally, with intent, etc. "free will" with regard that/those act(s).

Recognize that the outcome/consequences of your acts of freewill — i.e. a "life trajectory" is determined by your state at the time of acting,  the embodied history of all previous acts, and the influence of all other entities (sentient or not, measurable or not) in your environment.

Further recognize that for your life trajectory to have "meaning" — i.e. whatever set of states and circumstances that fit your idiosyncratic definition of 'the good life' — you need self-knowledge that exceeds even Socrates' ideal, awareness and understanding of culture, and probably comprehensive and intuitive understanding of Harry Seldon's Psychohistory.

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Can useful questions, positions, conclusions be derived?

davew