Hacker News Reader

Comment by mistercow | Hacker News Reader

All definitions (that I’ve ever heard) do this thing, though, where they just instantly add more concepts that either don’t have precise definitions, or whose definitions instantly render free will trivially existent or nonexistent, depending on what you go with. What do “you”, “consciously” and “decide” mean? And in particular, how is “you” distinct from “the brain”?

View on HN

In the words of Karl Pilkington,

> Does the brain control you or are you controlling the brain? I don't know if I'm in charge of mine.

This man is an underrated profound philosopher! Protect him at all costs.

In the words of a famous President: "That depends on what the definition of 'is' is."

It probably helps if you look at some of the existing experimental work that’s been done in the field, starting with the infamous Libet paper.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6640273/

This doesn't fundamentally answer what the post you're responding to is asking. What do you mean by 'you'? When we use that word we often presuppose that such a thing exists. I suspect that if you dig deep enough 'you' will be something like a fancy version of a mixture of experts 'blind sight' system.

I’m aware of that research, but my point is that whether you consider that to have any bearing on free will depends largely on where you draw those other boundaries.

While you’re reading papers (especially if they are 40+ years old), it’s worthwhile to read more modern experimental data on the subject as well.

Here’s one from 2012 that rebuts the Libet interpretation directly:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1210467109

Reply on news.ycombinator.com