Freedom, truth, love, beauty.
Does Free Will Exist?
A bunch of nerd gods debate free will.
My take: The actions of an individual human are fundamentally based on the laws of physics.
As the resolution of our tools increases we will be able to see and “predict” the outputs of an individual given a specific input. Yes, we will be able to read minds. We can see 14 billion years into our universe’s past, we will be able to see your thoughts. But only after they have occurred.
Will we be able to alter your thoughts to take a course of our prescription? Maybe.
Our brain works like this:
- Receive an input. (Touch, taste, see, smell, hear, etc.)
- Process the input.
- Produce an output.
Step 2. seems to take a minimum of 500ms (1/2 of a second) in the human brain. It is less if we are under stress and various chemicals are making our brain work faster.
That gap between input and output may be able to be hacked such that an external intelligence could detect an input, predict the outputs, and choose the output most favorable to the external intelligence rather than that of the individual.
At some point in the future humans will be able to alter the behavior of other humans such that those altered think they have free will but, in a manner that is undetectable to those so controlled, don’t.
Seems like the basis to some kick-ass Sci-Fi to me.
And in answer to your question, yes, I am a great source of amusement at parties!
