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Comment by andrei_says_ | Hacker News Reader

What we call “free will” consists of a multitude of forces we have no control over.

Look at your choices and try to find an independent entity making a decision.

You will likely notice your conditioning and preferences, beliefs, emotions, thoughts, physiological and psychological state in the moment, your environment, habits, trauma patterns, all collaborating toward one thing or another.

“Free will” is a shortcut for all these forces we have mo control over. Even when we explicitly feel we’re in control - usually the goal this control serves is not in our control. We don’t choose our preferences, tastes, morality, desires, or thoughts.

Paradoxically, in this complete absence of “choice” as we understand it, lies freedom.

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> What we call “free will” consists of a multitude of forces we have no control over.

What is "we" in this context?

This is the money question, isn’t it.

“Who am I?” Is one of the common pointers used to investigate.

Observing and unpacking one’s choices is another.

>What we call “free will” consists of a multitude of forces we have no control over.

Yea I also noted that, I always thought, I like red meat, but it was not my decision to like red meat. Sure I can control the urge or desire to have it or not have it. But I never "decided" to like red meat !

Yes, and! What makes you want to control the urge?

It’s like that all the way down, as far as I’ve been able to see. That, and automations/patterns/habits.

I think Sam Harris used something like this to argue that there is no self. Basically he said something along the lines of like “picture a movie in your head” and then “where did that choice come from? You had the ability to choose if the movie that appeared in your head was the movie you wanted to focus on, but you didn’t have a choice about which movie popped into your head first”. And then he talked about like, if you couldn’t control which movie popped into your head first, then “who” did? Is that the self? Or something along those lines anyway—I’m poorly paraphrasing here, but it blew my mind when I tried to think about it.

Was this on a particular episode?

I think of it as we have free will, bound by the entity that we are.

I read a quote somewhere - “If you want to make a perfect robot, have it experience your programming as their own choice “

We can do what we want, but we can't arbitrarily change what we want.

Yes, even wanting to change it is also a want. It loops.

It thinks therefore I am

It’s funny, another pointer of Nonduality is to focus on the feeling of “I am-ness”

Beyond story or thoughts.

Suggesting that there’s more to it to the thinking mind.

Yet, none of these forces are ultimately the primary cause of your decision. Rather they combine with your consciousness (your thinking about these forces and your state of thinking) and chance (randomness) to result in your choices.

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