Someone had an insightful comment about an age-old philosophical problem. namely the question whether free will exists. I am sure his argument has flaws, but is an interesting one to explore nevertheless.

I’m not sure that freewill, if it exists, requires any immeasurable quantum mechanical mumbo jumbo. The magic is not in any quantum mechanical phenomena inside the neurons, but in the standard physics arrangement of them.
More likely, the appearance of free will is result of the inability to perform 100% introspection into one’s own mind. I can no more “understand” the real-time machinations of my own mind than a Pentium processor can run a real-time simulation of its own transistors. Because I can’t perfectly introspect my subconscious, much of its output looks magically non-deterministic (hence the seeming similarity to quantum mechanical systems).
Any bounded-rational being would believe itself to have freewill based on its ability to take independent actions and its inability to introspect out all the causal factors underpinning its own actions. In reality, the system that creates intelligence can be 100% deterministic, just too complex for that intelligence to understand itself. Only a much more powerful intelligence could look down and see that these beings that think they have free will are actually operating on “simple” rules.

2007-03-23: Selecting for Gay Pagan Babies. Delicious logical quandaries.

Would the selection rob the child of free will? I don’t think so. What is being set is parts of personality traits, not the thoughts or reactions of the emerging person. They will bias and affect the thoughts, but no more and no less than any other personality traits. That these ones were selected does not give the parents more control over the child or predetermine its destiny. A theological argument against would be that God would make sure to give the right genome, and that parents should trust God to do it right. But if that is true, then God seems to like gays too.

2009-04-16: Strong Free Will Theorem. If indeed we humans have free will, then elementary particles already have their own small share of this valuable commodity.
2014-10-03: The free-will fix

New brain implants can restore autonomy to damaged minds, but can they settle the question of whether free will exists? If free will could be safely enhanced, would those with strengthened capacities be held to a higher standard?

2015-03-16: Is free will just an illusion?

We tend to take it for granted that conscious thoughts precede our actions. Indeed, our systems of morality, justice and moral responsibility are based on the notion that people are free to make thoughtful decisions. However, the US scientist Benjamin Libet’s groundbreaking 1980s experiments on the relationship between brain activity, conscious thoughts and physical actions caused some scientists and philosophers to rethink the concept of ‘free will’ and ask whether our decisions are made subconsciously before we’re even aware of them.

2019-03-13: QC & Free Will

Quantum computing theorist, popular author, blogger, and scientist Scott Aaronson on the #MeaningOfLife, Enlightenment, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, the Matrix, balancing work and family, and why the universe is not just a simulation.

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