Free Will and the Baby-Killing Robot

I put a comment on the Dilbert Blog in response to his post about free will, as dutifully reported by David.

I'll paraphrase -- and expand -- here.

It seems that Adams is concerned not with the ability of a human to make choices about their lives, but their ability to make choices that contradict the (possibly) predestined nature of the physical world. Putting aside the thorny question of whether that physical world really has no random component, he's making a far more specific claim than I think most of his furious readers realize.

Let's whittle this down to the simple question of getting out of bed this morning or not. It's a one-zero, boolean question. Adams is saying that the sum total of the positions and energies and vectors of all the particles in the universe one second before you woke up is enough to determine whether you'll get out of bed or not. He's saying that the process of "mind" that you think is your own free will, making the choice to stay in bed or not is just so much self-delusion. He says that the physical properties of atoms and electrons, which drive the higher level of autonomous brain functions make your choice predetermined before you woke up, so there is no free will involved.

My thinking is this. The will involved in free will is precisely the algorithms of information storage and retrieval in the brain, just as his more simplistic baby-killing robot is a programmable collection of algorithms in the robot's memory. (Hence my claim that the robot is exerting free will.) To say that the choice of getting out of bed is a function of those algorithms is precisely the same thing as saying it is a function of free will. The will is the algorithm!

I think Adams is defining "free will" as the ability to choose a path inconsistent with the predestination of the universe. I don't agree. I think that the thing we think of as free will is part of the predestination of the universe. Without the algorithms in your mind to weigh the relative effects of sleep deprivation, alcohol-related hangover, an oncoming head cold, and the desire to keep your job, there wouldn't be a choice for the universe to have predestined in the first place.

Free will is the ability to consciously take part in the flow of physical events (choosing to get up in the morning). There are plenty of events that we experience, but require no volition on our part (hair growth, stomach rumbling, calcium deposits). The concept of free will is a conscious interaction with the universe, not some sort of rebellious desire to thwart it.

If Adams wants to say that we can't thwart the physical laws of the universe, I'll agree with him. But such a thing is far grander than the ability to say, "I think I'll call in sick today."