Kevin Mitchell (@WiringtheBrain) is Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin and writes the blog Wiring the Brain. His book, Free Agents, argues that evolution gave us Free Will. Kevin begins by describing free will, how life has it but rocks do not, and the gradient of choice from paramecia to humans. He talks about the thought experiment of “Rewinding the Tape” and whether someone could have done otherwise under identical circumstances. Kevin discusses the fundamental indeterminacy woven into the fabric of the universe at the quantum scale, and how that combines with chaotic systems to make many aspects of the universe both unpredictable and undetermined. Finally, Kevin speculates about the ramifications of his research and findings on social intuitions and institutions.
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I think the exchange that happens between Mitchell and Sapolsky is kindof cringe-worthy, because their arguments are not directed at each other, but each misses the point of the other. Sometimes it feels they do it on purpose. It’s very adversarial. It may be true that every human action is determined (including a truly random quantum aspect) as Sapolsky says. At the same time, it does not exclude, as Mitchell argues, the possibility of both experiencing and exercising choice in life. Like it or not, the Block Universe contains all our desicions along with their outcomes. OTOH we live and die by actions that are selected by our decision-making brain. But these actions are determined by factors already within the Universe. One view does not invalidate the other, because it depends on what question we are trying to answer. Are we asking “Would the same person, on another day, make the same decision under the same circumstances?” (maybe). Or are we asking “Would the same person do the same things if we rewound the clock?” and then the answer would have to be “yes, modulo quantum randomness” or “yes, modulo quantum multiverse”.
Fundamental indeterminacy of quantum mechanics in no way can serve as a possible defeater of determinism. No agent is in control of that indeterminacy, by definition, and randomness in an organism’s environment, or even the organism itself, in no way leads to libertarian free will. The question of free will does not ask whether the individual would DO the same thing if the universal clock were rewound, but would the individual CHOOSE to do the same thing. Given every particle in the universe having the exact same properties as before, by what non-dualistic mechanism would an alternate choice be made? Free will is smuggling in an undefinable, secondary “you” not under the jurisdiction of physical laws. Kevin Mitchell did not comment on this when asked.