Todd Wolfson

Software Engineer

October 16, 2013

I believe that Free Will is something to live by, whether it exists or not.

There was a movie I watched a few years back called Waking Life. In the film, there is a scene where the protagonist visits Eamonn Healy, a chemistry professor. Professor Healy is on a rant about how everything in the universe down to its finest particle is a chemical taking part in a massive reaction.

Eamonn Healy in Waking Life

This scene set off a trigger in me and for the next few weeks, my mind is running circles around this theory.

I had personal thoughts where everything has a 100% chance of happening, just you don't know the state of the outcome until it has happened. The reaction theory aligned with those but it was questioning things on a much larger scale and brought up even larger thoughts:

  • If it is true, then my writing and your reading of this article are required to happen.

  • If it is true and we are able to observe the state of all things, then we can predict the outcome of everything at any given future time.

Eventually, I broke out it the vicious cycle. I concluded:

  • If it is true, then everything is predetermined so I cannot change it from occurring. This is a no-win scenario. As a result, I choose to disregard this predetermined notion and "follow" Free Will.

  • If it is false, then I will follow Free Will and actually be making free choices.

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