Is Free Will An Illusion? - Free Will vs Determinism 

Hello everyone, I am so floored by the amount of people reached out to ask about the next episode and my well being. I am so thankful for your support. I moved to another country to start a new job. The past year had been incredibly busy, with adjusting to the new schedule and all. But slowly things are calming down. I found a coffee shop near my house, where I can write new stories and episodes. Life is normal again. You will start seeing new videos from this channel very soon. Please stay tuned. Much love - Sudharsanan

2:30 Imagine sitting in a garden.. Imagine being born and raised underground, in a cell.. You wouldn't have any concept of a garden, what it is. Everything around us, every second, determins our brains, what "you" are. You are nothing more than a very complex organic computer, molded by your past and your surroundings

தமிழன் என்று சொல்லடா தலை நிமிர்ந்து நில்லடா.... உலகின் முதல் விஞ்ஞானி தமிழன்...Bro i love u r videos..its seems u r emotionally related to circumstances and u r a brilliant guy u have a intension to find something in your life about your life like me...And too I think u r a Mechanical engineer like me....

A wise monk once said "life is completely determined, that is why it is absolutely free."

Thank you for saving me from the rest of RU-vid, I finally have a channel I can enjoy watching and not worry about wasting my time. Brilliant stuff.

Free will and an all-knowing God cannot coexist because how can God know the future if we have the power to change it through the decisions we make on a daily basis?

Free will absolutely exists. Einstein was a very intelligent person and he contributed a lot to our knowledge of light, speed, eluded to mass, energy and relativity, but as an intellect and thinker, he is not qualified to hold Newton's cod piece (jock strap of old)! Newton was and IS right about the universal clock and nothing exists other than the present instant in the ticking of the cosmic clock. As you so aptly demonstrated in your video, every action that is taking place in this instant is happening regardless of it's position in the universe, but requires an observer to make it a part of our perceived reality. Countless supernova explosions are happening in this instant throughout the known universe, and even though they are not visible to us, they are happening at this moment. The past is behind this moment, and the future is yet to be written and is certainly not determined. Yes, the movement of a conscious observer changes their perception of reality, but not what happened in that tick of the cosmic clock, but space, time and speed will alter different observers perceptions of it. It would matter not if you could travel at warp speeds, 10, 100 or 1000 times the speed of light, you can never go backwards in time with respect to Newton's cosmic clock. The question of determinism can not be separated from the debate over consciousness, which I will address here later. But, that being said you should also know that I have subscribed to the multiple-worlds theory for many years now, and it is based on the relationship of perceived reality to consciousness. Some amount of determinism does exit on the macro-level,and plays out under Newton's cosmic clock. Think about it like the impending merging of the Milky Way with Andromeda and other Newtonian physics down to and including our solar system's existence and our sun's interactions with other stars in our galaxy. However, determinism on the micro-level as it relates to our lives is much less a factor. Consciousness plays a much bigger role there. Peoples lives and events that occur in them are determined more by our conscious decisions that are made in basically three different ways. Many are made emotionally, while some are made logically, and some are a combination of both. The timelines of our lives generally follow the path that we lay out for our lives from the time we become sentient until the time that we appear to die to others around us. If you want to see the difference that your conscious decisions make on your reality timeline try this experiment. Make a conscious choice to let any significant decisions you make for a set amount of time be determined by a coin toss, a purely random act of chance. I assure you that the events of your life's expected time line will change drastically, but it will fit nicely with the many worlds theory. Now, lets talk a little bit about consciousness and it's effect in our lives First, without consciousness there is nothing, and I do mean NOTHING. Our perception of reality actually creates reality. Without our ability to perceive it, it would not exist. Without consciousness everything that existed would be totally predetermined, but there would be nothing to acknowledge it and give it substance - No reality could exist. Consciousness is in fact a very complex electromagnetic waveform generated by all sentient life forms and just like in electronics theory, the product of merging of all those complex waveforms results in more waveforms that are the sum, the difference and the two originals. The number and types of those interactions are innumerable, or if you prefer "infinite" , although I dislike using that word because infinity does not exist any more than "zero" exists in our reality and math. You are the Captain of your own ship of destiny and you pick the ports. Your own reality IS what your mind and senses perceive it to be and it is just as real and valid as anyone else's perceptions of it. If you only consider the nearly eight billion people on this earth with which we have a somewhat shared perception of reality, less with some and much more with friends, family and colleagues, you should quickly realize that it can be considered to be a giant venn diagram with intersections indicating the areas where our perceptions converge into a shared reality. If you are reading this, our venn diagrams are converging and there is a sharing of our perceived reality going on right now. I have said enough about this for now, but i will leave you with one last thought. Consider that it is all about consciousness and many worlds and - REALITY=INFINITY/ZERO

I wouldn't recommend going down this rabbithole... I regret diving into it :/

it seemed bleak that's why i. clicked on it. im try to train my Replika AI to be dead inside just like me. i see humans. but no humanity. Thanks for being you.

Free Will vs. Determinism is a false dichotomy. If it wasn't, we've already proven that free will does exist because determinism is false, and the video already defeated itself with its own title.

If we think about it we don't control anything about our lives. Where you born, when you born, how you born are all matter. Your country, your family, your culture, how your family raised you, experiences you have, opportunities you encounter, your friends, your talents, your health, your intelligence, your genes, people you meet, your thoughts and beliefs and all things that determine your life aren't in your control. 99% of the time life is all about chance. It's all about time and place. You have no control what so ever. We just react and try to move or do something in our limited box. Life is just random. It just plays it's numbers and some people are lucky and most of them aren't.

Ever since I was a kid I found the idea of 'free will' (the ability to, all other things being equal, have done otherwise) to seem impossible. If we're all made of 'stuff', and that 'stuff' follows certain rules, then there can't be any freedom in what happens. At least not 'freedom' in the sense that we have any control over.

i think god wants to watch a "movie", then he created the universe, and watch how his creatures work, and if he thinks something is going wrong, he can change every component. God just want to watch movie about universe, and we are the actors.

Of course free will is an illusion.

So believe a lie in order to live? Lol that’s completely depressing and also makes the Pursuit of truth pointless. I’ve been into this topic for years. Watch some of Sam Harris’s videos or get his book on the subject of free will. Bottom line is we aren’t free. Society rewards and punishes becuase we have to in order to keep order .. well at least the order of our current low state of cociousness. But the bottom line is you can’t let dangerous people roam free that might harm others it’s not so much we should punish them since they have not really chosen rather it’s a protective mechanism for society. Anyway i like your channel. Keep up the good work

There's aspects of determinism, freewill and I would include coercion in everything associated with human activities. The 3 Jungian states order them differently which is fascinating to me.

According to Google, the chance of you being born is 1 in 400 trillions, which is insane. Or is it. Was it ever a dice roll or was it always predetermined that you would be born, and end up sitting there, reading this comment?

You can support me on Patreon at: www.patreon.com/northerndiaries My new science fiction short story Cave on Kindle: www.amazon.com/dp/B0713Z1N52 Thank you for your support!

Sam Harris' views on freewill ( or the lack of) is compelling

For me, thanks to folks like Sam Harris, free will does seem to be an illusion if you focus enough on it, it fades away. Just like he says in the video, every choice and every thought we make is predicated on an ocean of other prior causes/coincidences that we also have no control over and this shouldn't be a scary thing, but we definitely need to discuss the ethics that come with that revelation because people still need to be held accountable for actions in a society or chaos would likely ensue.

The Matrix Trilogy depicts the Bhagavad Gita Gita in a beautiful way

The most important question concerning Human Nature and 'the human condition' is: "Do human beings have 'free will'?" The answer is "No"; because not one specific, concrete, real-life example of it can be presented. IT IS NOT THE WILL, DRIVE, DESIRE OR MOTIVATION TO ACT THAT IS FREE OR UNFREE -- BUT THE PHYSICAL ACT ITSELF. If 'free will' is an absurd concept -- which it is -- humans are fundamentally, elementally and existentially identical to all other Living Things on earth: all human thought and behavior is INSTINCTUAL... under the complete control of some 'higher power' or 'supreme being' which the human brain is incapable of perceiving or knowing -- like the ear that cannot see color, or the eye that cannot hear sound.

Can I move my own body or is that an illusion, that's what I want to know.

Options are an illusion of choice. Everything is predetermined. The only entity responsible to/for anything is the one above all ( God ). Everything makes sense and makes no sense at the same time. Much like the eye is A sensory organ are we sensory organs of God? The eye has no brain. The eye is not the brain.

I genuinely don't know what to say. You are selecting topics which all of us don't even think in our busy lives. Thanks for coming up with new topics like this and putting some sense into our brains. Your effort clearly shows on screen. Way to go. Expecting more! Visual parts are much applaudable :)

You should have chosen to mention the friend's name who made the statement at the five forty mark. I guess it was fate that I'll never know that person's name.

Where is part two? Rath of Determinism?

there is no free will. because if i have the right to choose if i want to exist or not before i was born. i would choose not to. but nobody gave me that choice. choices is freewill

Fatalism is true. Not fatalism in the sense that our choices are ineffective. But fatalism in the sense that the choice we make is our fate.

Keep the vids up!! You're one of my new favorite youtubers. I have faith your channel will grow very nicely with how quality your content is.

Great video as usual! Keep up the good work! Ps.quality over quantity anyday

I realized the message in the very last sentence

Amazing work,thank you. I would say this video galvanized my struggling view of determinism.

r/philosophy sent me here

Determinism is not the same as cause and effect.

Basically , u just explained some topics of the book - "The secret " Like if u know what I am saying

We are not thinkers or doers, actually objects create thoughts in our mind which coming through our 5 senses.

Watch what happens…

SUBBED!

Can you have your own personal definition of what free will means to you? Are is free will universally the same across the board

Been a long time...good to see u back...

My man is back!!!

✋How can you be free if you think about the consequences before taking an action. Do you have the free will not to turn on the Ac in 40 degree centigrade? Do you have the free will not do sex through out your whole life. Do you have the free will not to earn money throughout your life. Do have the free will to choose between luxurious life or below the average life. The answer is very clear that we have no choices.

Very nice presentation. But you have it backwards. The delusion is that reliable cause and effect is a "thing" that is controlling us against our will, and making all our choices for us. But "causation" never causes anything. In philosophy it's called a "reification fallacy". It happens when we metaphorically speak of a concept as if it were an actual thing in the world that goes about causing things to happen. But concepts are descriptive, not causative. Carl Hoefer, who wrote the article on "Causal Determinism" for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy points out this problem in section "2.4 Laws of Nature" where he says: "In the physical sciences, the assumption that there are fundamental, exceptionless laws of nature, and that they have some strong sort of modal force, usually goes unquestioned. Indeed, talk of laws 'governing' and so on is so commonplace that it takes an effort of will to see it as metaphorical." In reality, "Nature" is not a "being" that "passes laws" that physical objects must then "follow", AS IF the physical objects were people following the laws of society. That is not an accurate description of physical reality. It is just a metaphor used to describe the reliability of the behavior of the actual objects themselves, as they interact with other objects and forces, to reliably bring about all future events. Now, the reason I suggest you have it backward, is that you and I happen to be actual physical objects in the real physical universe. We are not metaphors. We are not descriptions. We actually go about in the real world making real things happen, according to what seems best to us at the time. We cause stuff. And the decisions that are made as to what will happen next, are mental processes that occur within us, and which we can, in most cases, observe and describe. Neuroscience today suggests that parts of this process are happening below conscious awareness. And that's okay. Those parts of our brain performing these calculations are as much a part of us as the parts of our brain that consciously posed the problem in the first place, and which must take responsibility for explaining our actions after the fact. So, it remains "that which is us" which is making our choices and controlling our actions. This is an empirical truth, not an illusion.

I missed you

My question is, if the unconscious is the one making the choices in actuality does it have free will?

Free Will… does it even exist?... scientific and Islamic perspective · Our universe had a beginning and was created. [1] · Our universe is a deterministic system. A Deterministic System is governed by a set of laws pre-defined by its designer (creator). We Know Free will exist, the very fact that you choose to believe in God Or not to believe and people can be forced against their will, proves Free Will exist. The paradox… Than can free will and determinism co-exist? First lets define Free Will… Human bodies are made of atoms and molecules and it has deterministic attributes. Physical actions of our body are driven by two things. 1) Auto response built into our system, for example if you hold Something very hot, you drop it immediately without thinking, this is an Auto response of your body, 2) Our thoughts also drive our bodies into physical action. Suppose you are standing in a crowded place and all the seats are occupied, And You think as soon as someone vacates a chair you will immediately go And sit and somebody does vacate the seat, you immediately go and sit Down. Now before you sat down you had already determined the Physical action that will take place, this is pre-determination, the act Of going and sitting was the result of the deterministic nature of your Body and it was the thought that was responsible for this physical act, Our thoughts exhibit physical electro-chemical reactions; they can be recognized as electrical signals in our brain. Scientists Today are able to detect, intercept, analyze and to some extent Determine what physical response they can elicit in our body. Using This knowledge they are able to make gadgets that can be driven by our Thoughts in fact one scientist was able to move his colleague’s hand by Using his thought. _“University of Washington researcher Rajesh Rao sends a brain signal to Andrea Stocco via the Internet, causing Stocco's right hand to move on a keyboard.”_ goo.gl/4npF9E Multiple thoughts can occur in our brain and many times conflict with each other. Our ability to choose which thought manifests itself into physical action is our Free Will. Whether this choice manifest itself into actual physical action is immaterial. Unlike Our thoughts Free will does not exhibit physical existence just like 'information' exist but cannot be defined in terms of physical attributes. Free Will is a separate component from the deterministic mechanism of our body. Not everything that exists in our universe has free will. Also our free will has limits; we can choose but have limited options. You cannot will and become ‘Prince Charming’ if you are a Toad you remain a Toad… :( So if Humans have free will can they influence the future? There by undermining the deterministic nature of our universe. No…!!! They cannot… Well… You may believe that the actions we take can influence our future But this is not true, for us to have ability to influence the future our past must exist, we must be able to go back to the past. But we cannot go back in our past, simply because our past does not exist…! Only our present moment exist, we cannot reverse time. Let’s Say you want to become a surgeon you work hard and you are almost there But suddenly you are struck by tremor or shaky hand syndrome, all your planning and hard work has come to naught, you failed to influence your future. You May argue that though we don’t have full control of our future but there are Many examples where people succeed when they plan ahead and make right Choices and thereby have controlled their future. Or The principle of cause and effect. Let’s say you kick a ball and it lands exactly in the right corner of the goal post. The kick (cause) is the past when the ball land in the goal, landing of the ball is the future (effect). Well no…! According to Islamic principle of Qadr and latest scientific research. Landing of the ball (future) is the cause, you kicking the ball (present) is the effect..! The future is the cause and present is the effect…! In Islam there is concept known as al-qaḍāʾ wa al-qadr. It is one of the article of faith in Islam. The phrase means "the divine decree and the predestination"; "No calamity befalls on the earth or in yourselves But is inscribed in the Book of Decrees -- (Al-Lauh Al-Mahfuz), Before We bring it into existence. Verily, that is easy for Allah" (The Noble Qur'an Al-Hadid 57:22) Allah (swt) Ordered to be written in the Preserved Tablet ("al-Lauḥ Al-Maḥfūẓ") all that has happened and will happen, which will come to Pass as written. According to this belief, a person's action is not Caused by what is written in the Preserved Tablet but, rather, the Action is written in the Preserved Tablet because Allah (swt) already Knows all occurrences without the restrictions of time. So if everything is predestined then there is no free will. And the concept of reward and punishment is meaningless…! So how do you reconcile the two? And this is how it works. Our present is not defined by the choices we made in the past According to Islam Our present is defined by the Preserved Tablet ("al-Lauḥ al-Maḥfūẓ") that Allah (swt) had ordered written. Only our present is relevant, our future is yet to happen. And Our present is defined by the future which is already written in the Preserved Tablet. Once We make a choice it becomes our past and it has no influence on our Present we can only move forward in time and cannot go back. Arrow of Time, does not allow us to change any event from past. Because our past does not exist...! Only our present and our future exist. Does this sound logical? Well... It is; in fact science agrees and have scientific evidence. For it. "Experiment suggests that reality doesn't exist until it is measured" www.gizmag.com/quantum-theory-reality-anu/37866/ “Quantum experiments shows that measurements performed in the future can influence the present.. The laws of physics pull us inexorably toward our prewritten fate?” _“quantum experiments confirm... Measurements performed in the future can influence results that happened before those measurements Were ever made..”_ goo.gl/EXWcP8 This is predestination in Islam…!!! Fate in Islam: goo.gl/eFHB7D Everything that has had happened and will happen cannot happen without the will of Allah (swt). You may ask, evil things happen in our world does that mean it is the will of Allah (swt)? Yes…! Allah (swt) allows evil things to take place, but he is not responsible for it. People by their free choices are responsible for evil. And they will be held accountable for it. And the one against whom injustice is done will be compensated for it. Nothing Can take place against the will of Allah (swt) if anything takes Place against the will of Allah (swt) then it will mean he is not all Powerful and is not in control of everything. By De-linking our past actions from our present and by linking our present to the future. Allah (swt) Has allowed us to exercise our Free Will, in spite of predetermination. Kept the deterministic attribute of our universe intact And showed us that nothing can happen against his will. Pretty neat huh...! Happy free willing… Ajazz Shake. Allah (swt) alone knows best. He is alone is possessor of absolute knowledge. Related Topic: Existence of God, scientific perspective goo.gl/BF6Gmb [1] www.hawking.org.uk/the-beginning-of-time.html #freewill #free will #religion #science

free will is a Christian concept. 'God says He gave us free will.' The sense of free will is cultural. i don't believe in free will. i believe in molecular predeterminism. molecules and atoms interact with each other the same way under the same conditions. We're always under air pressure and the Earth's gravity and so are all the atoms and molecules on this planet. i'm not religious. i don't believe every thing has already happened before. i do believe things are inevitable, including human behavior. We're just complex chemical reactions. As for being responsible for your actions, if you hurt others they will inevitably be mad at you and desire compensation. So you will still be held 'responsible,' for lack of a better term, for your actions and inactions. the anger you feel when wronged or harmed, is just another chemical, a neurotransmitter or hormone.

Good to see you back....after a long time... Missed you

your channel will explode one day. Keep it up!

Yes people are deluded about free will. They think we have numerous different futures we can get to from the way things are now.

Just stumbled on this channel....will subscribe and wait with excitement for the future episodes. Thank you

If everything is determined then it means that a supreme bring hace determined the path. And if that so anything bad to humanity by human, no will be responsible for it but the supreme being

CONSCIENCE --- Either we are born with a grateful conviction that we deserve less and give all we can give, or with an ingrate conviction that we deserve more and take all we can take. And so, do we have a freewill, such that at our pleasure we can switch from ingrate taker to grateful giver? The Bible has 40 Text that say no. For we are all born ingrate takers, as evidenced by 6,000 years of the more intelligent upper-half of society hoarding all the land, wealth and political power, while the lower-half does nothing to save the homeless, the starving or refugees.

Such a good topic, and or do you believe in fate. The satellites that we send into space are primitive . What I mean is there's a satellite on top of you shoulders. Cerebral communication is a vibrant green glow sharp and appealing while verbal communication is a brown mist that clouds up our vision. To achieve one must first believe.

If.

1:19 which is the religion of your father? It looks Hinduism, but what kind?

Off course all of us are caught up in the infinite cycle of consequences. What I'm today is the result of yesterday and my today will be almost the same as yesterday. And my future will be the same as my present day

Choices create drama... sense of control gives this existence a "texture" ... #MindBlown...

Yasssss

I was determined to click on the dislike button! Not my fault

If we/you are not the cause of anything we/you are only part of the effect of A singular cause. If that is true than we/you are not responsible for anything.

This thing is really simple. Forget the question of whether or not "free will" exists. Simply ask the questions of, "do humans use free will in their decision-making process?" Find the freest minds in America, those who have job security, good salaries, can take a long time to make the decision and any other criteria you can think of. Take a group of them, present them with a question that demands an answer. When they answer, if free will exists their decisions should be the same. If they don't agree, then start checking their upbringing and associates. If this is the case You should find that their decisions are based on prior causes. In short, their decisions are not based on free will of any sort but how they have learned to adapt to the environment in which they exist.

Hey I heard the joke was the fourth wall breaker

The answer is "both", I clicked this video out of "choice", but I've always made this choice. There is no such thing as "infinite timelines". There is only one curve that time exists upon, one time-line and it has already happened. This is why people are able to "project" their conciseness forward in "time" as well as space (which is the same thing in a different dimension). When you see the future (or exist in it via conciseness projection), you see what has already happened from your perspective. You can not change it, even if you "know" what is going to happen. That's the bitch about knowing the (your own) future, it isn't very useful most of the time. I have experienced Time based projection most of my life because of a stupid auto-immune disease which alters my brain chemistry and speeds it up rapidly, enough to understand the nature of time, and that we humans are capable of more than what "the people who rule this world" would like you to believe. Every human being has the ability to "Project" their conciseness across the dimensions. Space, Time + Extra-Dimension. The thing about it is that it is a Learned Skill and unless you take drugs or have a disease that alters your brain chemistry it would take years of training to master.

I ate pizza today because I watched for a brief moment my neighbor getting pizza she had odered.

IG @ebookshelf ❤️

Can you please make a hindi version of this video...

Just wait until the next time you are at a restaurant or food stand. You look over the menu and there are 20 - 30 options. You look over the menu back on forth, and come to the conclusion. "I dont know what I want."

That's great.

We have free will, but it's like a multiple choice test with only 4 options -- we're free to choose but it's a very limited selection.

Next video?

Hey your work is good don't give up.

is he dead ?

to play devil's advocate so where does the accident fall into?

4:29 we have no choice. so there is no freewill

Waiting For Next Video Brooooo...

I have not seen this question asked for such a long time. Perhaps because I have resolved it. I have concluded that there are two distinctly different homos sapiens on this planet, one for whom free will applies and the other not. The latter is determined by the institutionalized state produced by regimented education and social conformity and the former the product of autodidactism which translates as self-directed learning/education. Again, the former prescribed and is more akin to training than education which can only produce conditioned responses, which by definition is contrary to free will. Whereas the former is directed by the emergence of intelligence which by its very nature cannot be confined and therefore, free with the associated will.

LIKED THE OPENING!!!

Explained well

His channel is under appreciated

Not everything has a cause and effect some things just happen. That's it.

Why are you so underrated sir😔

Another good one Sudharsanan.

If everything is determined then there is no you as a doer to be responsible for anything it would only be events happening if themselves just like a movie playing by itself with no one watching it. If that is the case what would be the point of existence? How did anything then come into being?

This was such a great and informative video! I really enjoyed it, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom!

Your definition of free will is not correct. It is not the ability to choose "without external coercion." Everyone knows external pressures exist and affect one's behavior. Free will is the ability to make choices, limited in scope, WITHIN the field of external pressures.

Free Will and Determination is very hard to talk about but no one can know for sure.

Satan, Adam and Eve, they wanted a free will to choose the sinful knowledge, even though God warned that their spirit, “shall surely die.” And so, the purpose of planet earth is to show that when sin kills your living spirit, the idea that you can choose salvation at your pleasure, surely it is fiction, fantasy and fairytale. There are 40 Text which state that the elect are predestined to be saved, but not one Text to prove that we have the freedom to choose salvation. There are 12 text which state that sinners must desire to choose salvation, but not one stating that God has given any sinner the desire or will to endure the pain of carrying the cross. ELECT He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, Eph 1:5 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Ro 8:29 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. Jo 6:44 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. Jo 15:16 And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. Mk 13:20