We all experience what is known in philosophy as ‘libertarian free will’.
That is, we feel like we are in control of our actions, and that in a given situation
we could’ve done otherwise.
You feel, for example, like you’ve chosen to listen to me right now, and that at any
moment you can choose to stop.
The problem, however, is that science is telling us, loud and clear, and unequivocally, that
while our feelings of free will are real, free will itself is an illusion – a very
powerful one, for sure, but still just an illusion.
This, is 'Free Will - Debunked'.
In 1999, the celebrated master of lateral thinking, Edward De Bono, was asked by the
British Foreign Office to come up with a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle
East, and to their bewilderment his response was to give them a jar of Marmite.
Now while this seems absurd, his logic was nevertheless solid.
In short, he reasoned that since the average person living in the affected geographic region
has a zinc deficiency, and since a lack of zinc causes people to become irritable and
belligerent, the way to resolve their conflict is to send them endless supplies of the zinc-rich
product that is Marmite.
Now, I personally think this is a stroke of genius, but the reason I bring it up is not
to interest you in De Bono's work (though, if I have, that's great), it's to illustrate
that external factors that we are mostly unaware of, and over which we have no conscious control,
at least in part determine our consciousness, which in turn determines our decisions.
A lack of zinc can indeed cause us to make aggressive decisions; just as a dose of caffeine
can make us choose to be productive.
But what am I getting at here?
All these discoveries prove is that part of our consciousness is predetermined, not that
all of it is... so, what’s my point?
Well, the realisation (and subsequent proof) that external factors at least in part determine
our consciousness, has led many of humanity’s greatest minds to suspect that our consciousness
might be entirely determined by external factors… that despite the fact we’re conscious, we’re
no more ‘free’ than the wind.
This, needless to say, is a very compelling hypothesis, that if true would have unprecedented
affects on our notions of praise, blame, pride and guilt – but that’s all it’s ever
been… an untested hypothesis.
That is, until very recently, with the birth and rapid advancement of neuroscience.
However, before we move onto neuroscience, I want to clear up an extremely prevalent
myth about this position – which for those of you unaware, is known in philosophy as
‘determinism’.
The myth is that ‘determinism is another word for fatalism’ – which is the assertion
that absolutely everything is predetermined, and that therefore absolutely everything is
inevitable.
The truth, however, is that while many fatalists call themselves determinists (and hence exacerbate
this myth) determinism is merely the assertion that human consciousness is predetermined.
It makes no claim whatsoever about the rest of the universe.
Now I grant that this distinction might seem pedantic, but it’s not – it’s extremely
important, and the reason for this is because many people are convinced that various studies
in quantum mechanics have demonstrated that the quantum world is random, and that therefore
determinism is false.
But with the definition clearly presented on screen, I’m sure you can see the issue
here.
Even if the quantum world is nondeterministic, this would not invalidate determinism.
Sure, it would invalidate fatalism, but it would not invalidate determinism.
Anyhow, with this myth now thoroughly addressed, let’s look at what neuroscience has to say.
In 1983, the pioneering scientist, Benjamin Libet, conducted a study in which he wired
up subjects to an EEG machine to measure their brain activity.
He then put a timer in front of them, asked them to consciously decide to perform a hand
movement, perform the movement, and to then report the exact time that they had made a
conscious decision.
And the results were extremely fascinating.
He found that “The onset of cerebral activity clearly preceded by at least several hundred
milliseconds the reported time of conscious intention to act.”
Or in other words, that the subject’s brain had initiated the movement long before the
subject had consciously made the decision to move…
Now while this study was groundbreaking, in the fact that it suggested that our consciousness
is entirely determined, and that therefore free will is an illusion, it didn’t prove
it, because it left unaddressed a few disputable concerns.
Namely, that the brain activity didn’t predict a specific outcome of a choice, and that the
delay was only a few hundred milliseconds, which means that is simply could’ve been
due to latency.
But in 2008, in response to these criticisms, Chun Siong Soon conducted a similar experiment
using an fMRI machine, in which he asked subjects to freely choose between, and then immediately
press, one of two buttons that were operated by the subject’s left and right index fingers.
And his results were truly remarkable… he found that, “… the outcome of a decision
can be encoded in brain activity of prefrontal and parietal cortex up to 10 s before it enters
awareness.”
10 seconds!
And he went on to conclude that, “This delay presumably reflects the operation of a network
of high-level control areas that begin to prepare an upcoming decision long before it
enters awareness.”
Now if Libet's experiment poked free will, Soon's dropkicked it.
Because if we can accurately predict what you’re going to do before you’ve even
made a conscious decision, then your consciousness is evidently not 'free', and therefore your
conscious 'decisions' are not 'free'.
Or to put it another way, because your consciousness is predetermined, your free will is an illusion.
You simply do not have the freedom that you think you have.
In light of these studies, and of many more, each with differing equipment and methodologies,
Harris has written that, “One fact now seems indisputable: Some moments before you are
aware of what you will do next—a time in which you subjectively appear to have complete
freedom to behave however you please—your brain has already determined what you will
do.
You then become conscious of this decision and believe that you are in the process of
making it.”
“You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it.
You are the storm.”
Now, in conclusion, I have to say that I’m honestly not convinced that the scientific
community, let alone the general public, has acknowledged the gravity of these discoveries
– either because they don’t understand them, or because they don’t want to (and
unfortunately, I suspect it’s the latter).
Humanity has always had a tendency to ignore inconvenient truths (such as human-induced
climate change), and I think that the discovery that free will is an illusion, is, and for
a while will continue to be, one of them.
Anyhow, I’d thank you for watching the video to the end, but then, you didn't have a choice,
did you?
So why should I thank you?
In fact, does anyone ever deserve gratitude?
Does anyone ever deserve blame?
For answers to questions like these, be sure to check out the conversation that I had with
my friend Alex O'Connor, which is linked in the description below, and, of course, to
read Sam Harris' exception book, Free Will – it's a short but life-changing read!
As always, thank you kindly for the view, and an extra special thank you to my wonderful
patrons and to those of you who have donated via PayPal – your support is what keeps
me doing what I'm doing.
Thank you.