I'll give you some. You're here because of some carefully picked bright colours on a thumbnail and a clickbait title. This video was brought to you by ground news. The news site that helps you filter through the NPCs. So at least some of us are NPCs. Also I just rewatched Idiocracy and saw the scene where the guy was like "omg you like MONEY too?" The free will argument only makes sense because we can't model the future by measuring every particle. But that argument will fall apart if we could. We are getting extremely close. Not on the modeling every particle front but by modeling with your sex, gender, age, ethnicity, Google search history, Amazon purchase history, UA-cam watch history, political affiliation, country, etc etc etc and they can read you like a book. They are only getting better and better. UA-cam is like...here's this video. Ya, click it. You can't help it. I know because I have all your history. You love this sh*t.
The problem with the whole free will discussion is that no one can define what it is, because we try to define it through to conciousness, which we also don’t know what it is. So until we can explain consiousnes, we can’t know if we have ”free will” or not.
Free will is the gift humankind has been given that allows each individual to freely choose their ideas and what they wish to believe or disbelieve. Our ability through the choices we make, to create new circumstances and environment, relationships, achievement or failure, prosperity or poverty. There is no way that man may escape what he thinks, says or does [i.e., the fruits of his free will]-for he is born of the "Divine Creative Consciousness" power and is likewise creative in his imagination.
@ That sounds poetic and deep, but how is it different from simply thinking? As for choosing your beliefs, that’s not something we can do. If someone shows you your beliefs are false, and you actually understand them to be false, you will stop believing them. Even if you still want to believe, you will know it to be false. An extreme example of this is trying to believe that the sky is green. You can state it however much you want, but you won’t belelieve it because you know it’s false. What is the difference between thought and free will? Why do people claim that animals don’t have free will but they have thought? Is free will simply understanding the consequences of your actions? Does a child not have free will then? What’s the difference between free will and simply making a choice? To me ”free will” is like saying ”the soul”. It has no real definition and it’s mostly just used to call humans special.
We know what consciousness is because all of us experience it, it's awareness. If you take away all of our senses, our thought, and perception of time then we are not aware and not conscious. The only question is if the decisions we make are pre-determined or not. On the surface it seems yes, it must be, as our decisions are a reaction to inputs. But I tend to think it's not pre-determined as the universe is ruthlessly efficient and if consciousness was not required for living things then we would not have it.
@@winwinogaming if it’s not pre determined, then it’s uncaused and random. Still doesn’t give us the type of “freeness” we’re looking for when we’re alluding to agency and moral accountability
@@amilo5its not ignorance though, the criminal can be fully aware of their crimes and still be unable to avoid comitting the crimes due to lack of free will.
The dudes saying First are the real NPCs Unironically, most of the replies on this comments are NPCs Yes, a comment like this is also from an NPC, why did so many people like this shity comment?
You are your actions - more specifically you are the experience of going through them. And future you is a result of those actions. Don’t get that wrong - every action you do affects you. The thing of note, however, is that you can easily examine this in reverse order, and it’s exactly as valid. Your future is all a result of your prior actions… down to the present (nothing new here). But your present is a result of your prior actions, down to the most recent moment. Now you start to notice the pattern.. You can’t change the past. Your future can’t change what you’re doing now. There’s literally no moment in time that isn’t a result of the prior moments. The room for free will in the equation is… none. The good news is that you’ve been set on a path that that has equipped your brain with the information it needs to generally act in a direction that benefits your life and the people around you. Are you but a mere passenger on a wild ride? In a sense, yeah. Are there ups and downs? Of course. But you’re lucky to have the miracle of experiencing this life, and have a brain that, as faulty as it can be, is able to make the best of it.
Nah you’re still in control, you just don’t know your fate, you can choose tomorrow to believe in predetermined fate and not do anything and decided to become homeless or continue your life like nothing happened. It’s just that the end result can be calculated, it doesn’t mean you don’t have choice.
@@Fluffythepossum Nah, that's only if you're hitchhiking. If you're staying in one place you'll probably be fine without needing to always have your handy towel on hand.
It was determined at the big bang they would not put a bird in this video. Or, the emergent properties of their minds gave them the free will to not put a bird in the video. Or, whatever.
Yeah I found the framing odd. Why's it so terrible if the feeling of free will is only a feeling, produced by other things? I'm happy to be a link in the causal chain, being outside it would be existentially strange. Isn't it cooler that a part of the whole can witness itself, priviledged with this beautiful experience, and even get to experience the sensation of choosing? Which allows for more abstractions to be possible, like meaning, morality, and purpose. It can even invent the concept of taking itself seriously and pretend to be "somebody" for a short while :P. I think the resistance to it comes from the horror that a dualist view would bring. Nobody wants to be something separate that is totally at the mercy of physics. Like a ghost trapped in a flesh robot. That sounds scary as heck. Love this Alan Watts quote: "You are something the whole universe is doing, in the same way that a wave is something that the whole ocean is doing. The real you is not a puppet that life pushes around, the real deep down you is the whole universe."
@@harrisondorn7091I don’t have any desire to be a passive observer that is indistinguishable from the rest of existence. If I had the choice between that and nonexistence, I would simply rather not be. The only value I feel of my existence is in being an independent entity defined by the borders of myself (no matter how meaningless or insignificant).
It is just as any other video of Kurtzgesagt, I have read this many times on the comments under their videos. On every video from them, we almost all feel an existential crisis.
Ok, here's the thing. Even with the emergence argument, you can explain determinism. In point of fact, it almost supports determinism. If a collection of particles on one layer affect the next layer up, you can still say that the events follow a deterministic order. Even with quantam particles that are random, if you can observe the randomness you can follow the pattern. If a collection of neurons all come to together to make one brain that can think, than that one brain is affect directly by a collection of neurons. If a neuron is made up of however atoms or whatever, it is directly affect by those atoms. If you go further and further down the line of disabstraction, you reach quarks or whatever is at the bottom. Here is where we reach time. If each particle moves in accordance with what came before it due to causality, than any given particle can't move on it's own, it's movement is a consequence of something else moving. This means, when particles come together to form a collection of particles which makes up a layer, the layer can move in a body (as a consequence, mind you) to affect other bodies of particles, other layers. If these layers make up more layers, the same argument can be made until the cows come home. As a consequence, if one particle at the bottom of the line moves somehow, that particle moves most if not all the other particles in the layer, consequently they move as a body, which moves all other layers within the next layer up. Consequently, a single particle all the way from Timbuktu could affect whether or not the neurons in your brain collectively make the decision to do a backflip right now. You are merely observing the consequences of actions you can't even comprehend to have happened. Even with the argument that water makes things wet, or sodium and chlorine (both toxic) make up salt which is essential for life, those things are merely consequences of the specific properties of the many particles that make up layers within atoms such that when they combine with an other atom they mix and combine their properties which can create new properties as a consequence even if the new properties don't make sense by combining the atoms. It's consistent. There is a lot of salt on Earth. If everything that has happened isn't merely the consequences of something else happening, it would be inconsistent and there would be virtually no salt on Earth. But it's consistent. Which means that the particles must form this way naturally, that there is some intrinsic propertie of particles and atoms that makes them behave so. Determinism explains this intrinsic quality of all particles very neatly.
The answer is yes. Particles like strings only make sense in 10 or more dimensions of space-time. Assuming strings are real and function the way assumed, it is unlikely that there aren't at least two temporal dimensions. This, combined with the many worlds solution to the Schrödinger's cat concept, suggest that there are two (or more) dimensions in time: before and after, and alternate timelines of the same universe. Since the space-time continuem is a continuem, that is, has a definite beginning and end, every timeline will have its own 'set in stone' events that will happen to the version of you that you perceived. However, since you are only capable of being fully in control and aware of the version of you that you perceive, you can indeed make choices, but you only end up making one because two particles cannot be in different positions at the same time coordinates. That means that each version of you is to be considered the whole and that, therefore, you can become any of them you choose, even though the you reading this only ended up making one decision, the decision that version of you would always have had to made in this particular timeline and which was predetermined since the big bang to retain space-time's continual nature, made the only choice that version of you could make. If that makes any sense at all.
@ruffyistderhammer5860 I do alternate history videos, occasionally. So far my grand total is one unscripted video. It doesn't explain that, but maybe I will.
The video is complete garbage, they tried to put two different of definitions of free will on the same level, and totally dismissed how context out of your grasp to pick influences your choices. This is a dishonest shitty piece of propaganda.
"Free will like when you decided to watch this video instead of doing something useful" Me actively ignoring my exam tomorrow to figure out if i am an NPC
This is a good way to help people grapple with the question of free will. It highlights the paradox. It sets up the challenge to the reader to try to want something they don't want and realise that doesn't make sense. Swap out want with will and you get. You are free to do what you will. But you're not free to will what you will. Or more, you are not free to will what you don't will.
This stands on its head. You are free to want what you want, you merely have to convince yourself of said wish which is the point where most people fail. A shift of perspective is very much possible and integral part of cognitive therapy. However, you are not free to do what you want, very much not so. Not because of consequences but due to a lack of means.
This video does not include the body, you are locked inside it, of its stimuli and neuro-chemicals. A proof of this are the sick metals, or children without maturing wanting to see Tiktok or adult content
Wetness doesn't exist, it is just the sensation of the nervous system that indicates water nearby the skin. A very useful tool for a species that cannot breath water, as contact with water in the wrong areas indicates possible submersion. Just like how the concept of a sound (especially that trees make in the forest when nobody is around to hear them) is just the eardrum processing vibrations in the air around you. "Sound" is an electrical signal in the brain for nearby vibrations.
@@gingerinajacket8519 Not really a good argument unless you're also implying then that nothing really exists. This is going down the reductionist road talked about in the video, like saying color doesn't exist, it's just different wavelengths of light. Oh wait, but light doesn't exist, it's just our visual cortex being activated by photons, and this could go on right down to the level of subatomic particles.
@@gingerinajacket8519I would define wetness as the property of being surrounded by water that the object is in contact with, which would make water wet
I love your materials and am a big fan of the way you tackle complicated problems and topics. As part of the “no-free will” camp, I’d love to see you make a follow up video that goes into some more interesting parts of this dicussion. For example the studies from Libet et al as early as the 60’s showing that our brains “readiness potential” precedes our “intention”, and for simple (repetitive action) tasks, studies from 2008 show that this can extent up to 10’s before we “intention” the action. This is why most of the “no-free will” camp initially had to challenge our daily experience of free will to try and understand why it’s there, because “free will” is a condition which even the no-free will humans experience. From that perspective it’s a thing which needs understanding, and studies from Maoz et al show that the “decisions” are handled very differently when they are “meaningful”. When we understand there are consequences to choices we engage different centres of the brain to evaluate this category of decisions/actions. So the fact that free will doesn’t work the way we intuitively think about it, doesn’t mean it’s not important. The experience or illusion of agency makes things like altruism and its feedback to the dopamine centre of the brain incredibly fascinating. The agency we feel, and the “free will” we experience are important, and although we may not be able to make a choice in the moment, or even just prior to the moment, pausing to consider, and engage different parts of our brains about big consequences, may allow us to direct the future and shape how the world will look tomorrow, even if when we click the play button we don’t “chose too”.
True, this video is not one of their best. They leave out a lot of evidence for the no-free will camp. The unconscious part of our brain makes the decision and with a tiny delay we become aware of it. But let's look at the Indian Nonduality philosophy. "Who" is making the decision. There is no I inside the brain controlling the body. Free will is an illusion because there is not even an I that can have free will.
I think it's important to consider what we are in the first place. I don't think it's useful to say we don't have free will if part of use doesn't. Just because our conscious mind did not will it doesn't mean another part of us did. It would be like saying you did rase your hand your muscles did. You would say it's still you. If part of your brain is making the decision even if it's not the conscious part it's still you. Also assuming we are a brain and that everything is instant.
Absolutely agree with you, Libet's work is really fascinating when you think about it. This "readiness potential" precedes the feeling of consciousness and it makes sense ; every day in our life we are making an incredible amount of actions and if we need to think about it every time we would not be able to do all micro-actions, the reflexes and we would be slow. Every thing in our behavior is about reflexes in response to stimulus we receive from all around us, most of our lives is ruled by non-conscious actions and thoughts. Consciousness may only be because we need to understand what we are doing so we can memorize it, it may be the fact that we are constantly recording and memorizing stuff that we call this "consciousness". Humans are afraid of losing their free-will state because it would mean that they are powerless and unable to make their "own" decisions in a determinist world.
The bots are out in droves today so I would like to remind everyone how to interact with them. Rule 1: Don’t. Just mass report all of their spam comments, and report their accounts. Rule 2: DO NOT REPLY. This may make it harder for the algorithm as it might see them as legitimate engagement.
I’m surprised they didn’t cover the theory that our subconscious decides all and our consciousness merely justifies whatever is chosen, an accompaniment instead of decision. Something along the lines of the individual cells doing what’s best for the collective you, but without true decision. There’s no option B, your consciousness just perceives it so. Your “thinking” self accompanies the decision to go with option A, which is the option that from which the collective cells will gain the most amount of power. Power being an all encompassing term for growth, strength, learning, success, etc. Friedrich Nietzche Good video, Kurz!
I don't see how emergence gets in the way of reductionism. Emergence is not some magical property that sufficiently complex systems gain, it's the result of simpler systems applied at large scales. A water molecule isn't wet, water is, the "emergence" is the natural consequence of scaled interactions of water molecules, you absolutely can start at quarks and predict wetness, it's just wildly impractical to do so, the abstraction is a useful shortcut that hides the unnecessary details, it allows you to understand the world without having to simulate 100 undecillion quarks and leptons just to figure out that water wicks into some materials. Free will appears to emerge when you abstract enough of reality away behind useful heuristics and logical shortcuts that the connection between basic physical processes and large-scale outcomes is obscured. The magic emerges as we begin to ignore reality, and disappears as we take a more complete view once more.
Honestly, their explanation is about “wet pants”, magic and something at the level of “you are you, these are feelings, dreams, be free!!” - this is the most infantile thing I've ever heard.
@@KKSS9 Has there been a coherent argument from the free will camp yet? I haven't seen one, they either change the definition of free until it stops meaning free, or they mistakenly equate randomness/unknowableness/complexity and freedom.
@teth47 You absolutely nailed determinism and the flaws of "free will". I'd love to hear the opinions of a far-more intelligent alien species regarding this issue. How does studying this debate affect a type 1 and up civilization? Assuming the answer to this debate is definable, what happens to a society who can prove determinism? Or vice-versa? Pure speculation: what if the illusion of free-will is necessary for a species to out-compete its rivals? If a species has an inherently deterministic perspective on reality, maybe they get killed of by the "dreamers" of their planet? Again, in my opinion, all of this was determined at the Big Bang lol.
@@qt3820 I think in the early stages of a species' development into a technological, reasoning society a belief in free will is necessary to act as a bridge between the ignorant past and the less ignorant future. At the start of the realization that free will is an incoherent concept (even if determinism is false), it is very, very easy for a society to disintegrate because the connection between personal responsibility and exhibited behaviors isn't obvious. As a society develops, it can integrate the idea that we must be responsible for ourselves with the fact that we are not free to make arbitrary choices. Freedom or the assumption of freedom is not required, the consideration of personal responsibility is part of the machine that makes good decisions, it's not about whether or not the machine was free to make some other decision. It does mean that the way we punish misbehavior should change, but we already knew that in the first place, we just aren't doing it because free will is such an attractive idea it blinds us to the damage it causes.
Well, yes. Kurzgesagt guys are usually amazingly good at giving things a positive spin. Hey, even their Optimistic Nihilism video was... optimistic. But here it feels like they've played down the "let's accept the world as it is and enjoy it", although they still said it. 🙂 What I didn't quite like is that they used Straw Man ("magic"), which is something they never do. And then they went on to confuse and obfuscate the matter of Emergence by turning it from "interesting" into somehow "free", which is kind of like saying that if you don't watch a ball bouncing off the edges of the screen and instead watch an engaging film, it makes you free to choose the events there. 🤷🏻♂️ ... Although, the whole thing might not be about the physical truth, but about what sorts of memes are being spread. Telling people that they are free is much more useful that telling them that their lives are completely determined. Some illusions aren't meant to be shattered. 😄
@@TinyShaman Another thing I didn't like is how they mystified emergence. Yes levels of abstraction matter, but "your digestive tract" could potentially influence galaxies, it's not very likely, but to be absolutely certain you would have to account for that. We just don't have the processing power for starting so low at the abstraction level and we don't have the math neither. And also the rejection of free will DOES have arguments that operate on a very high abstraction level, psychology and consciousness, showing that our conscious understanding of the decision making process, in fact comes AFTER the generation of the decision itself. What we perceive perceive as rational reasoning for our decision is only a small snippet of the underground processes, namely the part that could be adequately risen to the level of language and sentiments.
@@grivza Yes, I agree on both points. And I would be so cautious on the first count, either. Emergent ideas, religious, social, economic, etc. are already influencing the state of the galaxy. Lunar and Martian soils have already been taken to Earth. And if a particular country's president's digestive tract's condition can boost or slash, say, the asteroid mining belt program, the influence is rather evident. 🙂 As for the recent research on the illusion of choice, yes, they just outright ignored it. In any case, it's a little bothersome that they went with "determinism bad" subtext. There's plenty of positivity, beauty, and hope to be derived from the "no free will" worldview, to my mind.
@@AbelRajan From deterministic perspective, morality is a rather loose conceptual system that has emerged from patterns of behaviour which have proven to be either beneficial or detrimental for individuals and / or societies. Such patterns aren't the sole prerogative of humans and are present in any more or less complex organisms and their communities. Simply put, experience shows what behaviour improves the life of the community, and what harms it. The former becomes approved and promoted and the latter is frowned upon and is weeded out. I hope it has been clear, but feel free to clarify.
There's actually research out there that suggests your brain knows what you are doing and your choice before the consciousness does so then this is literally wrong
When they said, "Like when you decided to watch this video instead of doing something useful." it really got me thinking, and I actually turned off my phone to do something more meaningful that I had been putting off all day. Thank you :)
In a similar vein to your experience, one interesting thing to note about free discussions is that if you convince people they don't have free will, they act worse. They're shittier people, and they don't achieve as much in their lives. But only slightly. Based on the available evidence, I think we have a tiny amount of free will. Most of what our minds and bodies do is a combination of internal biological autopilot and external factors pushing us in various directions. But, on top of all of that, we have some ability to internally nudge our autopilot. Nudge it enough times, and it will change direction. You might not be able to fully, directly control yourself and your destiny (there are just too many internal and external forces in play to do more than be buffeted around by them), but you can at least have a guiding hand on the wheel of your life, and gently steer your course through the waves of life as best you can.
@@jasonwalker9471 If someone get worse because they believe that they have no free will then the poor guy doesn't understand what it actually means. No free will means no decision made is truly random. I find the fact actually more encouraging, as every decision of me is based, and even time proves it to be a failure, it wasn't my fault but the context given at that point did not support an alternative.
@@tapist3482 People who start to believe they have no free will stop trying and stop caring, because their effort means nothing. Because of this lack of effort, they preform worse in almost every way to people who believe they have free will. Thus providing evidence that they have at least a limited amount of free will, since they chose to be lesser versions of themselves.
Unfortunately for the "free will exists" camp, emergence doesn't do anything to solve the actual problem posed by physical determinism + randomness. The non-reality of free will doesn't depend on reductionism at all; only on the necessity of causality. If each event is causally dependent on the events in its past light cone, the insertion of a conscious agent raises three very difficult questions: (1) Where does this agent arise in the process? (2) By what mechanism does it alter the physical state of the brain to enact its intentions? and, (3) Why is it not itself subject to causality? Though the first two questions may be answered by a consciousness styled after the god-of-the-gaps, the third not only lacks a scientific answer, but indeed flies in the face of the entire project of rational inquiry. I suggest our perception of free will in ourselves arises in part out of the same general mechanism which leads to the over-detection of agents in our processing of external stimuli. It's well established that humans (and other animals) are genetically programmed to perceive agents as responsible for events. This, of course, has lead to the invention of innumerable gods and demons, deemed responsible for the actions of nature. It would seem that this same agent-seeking bias, directed internally, results in the construction of an internal agent (the self), credited as causal to our own thoughts and actions.
Which is why science, based upon empiricism rather than rationalism, is wholly unsuited to answer the question of free will. As you stated in your 3rd point, empirically it cannot be done. Thus reaching a conclusion as you have done here is absolutely absurd
Emergence does in fact have nothing to do with the argument of free will because if new things emerge from a deterministic system, they themselves are still deterministic. As said in the video, you cannot explain psychology with individual neurons, but nobody's doing that. Yes, your conscience emerges from your neurons working together, but they are in a (theoretically) predictable manner, although practically impossible, but that's not the point for the existence of free will. Also there's another argument: there are of course many many things science has not understood today. However, EVERYTHING we have come to understood turned out to be a predictable, computable pattern, some formula, even if randomness is involved. Never have we encountered something that behaves with "free will". So why would we assume that our conscience is the only thing that differs from these observations?
The Emergence argument isn't really an argument for free will, only against the deterministic counter-argument. It doesn't explain how a Free Will could work, specifically.
I think the video could have made this clearer. The concept of “magic” that was dismissed in the video is better put as a force that we have absolutely no idea if or not it exists. That and the fact that our macro sciences are concluding that there is no free will doesn’t help the free will camp. There are also other macro level problems. But the lack free will paired with consciousness isnt such a bad thing. It’s a gateway to compassion for the human experience.
@@GuapLord5000 It's so freeing, knowing that the shortcomings of others can't be helped. There is no reason to be angry. You just understand and carry on.
I agree, the free will camp in the video didn't explain the basis of free will like how everything should have started in their part, but for me, free will camp believes in the beauty of chaos that can break the fundamental laws of science, just like how the black hole works so mysteriously because many believe that it breaks reality, but who knows, maybe it's all calculated and everything came from a predetermined course of actions with logical explanation... in the end I'd go with free will camp for my sanity's sake 💀
@@GuapLord5000don't we know it exists since we know wetness exists but can't explain why? So there's something else outside of our physics which is present in the universe. We don't know everything.
I am staunchly anti-free will, and while I think the emergence argument is interesting I believe that one of the main reasons why vastly different layers can't explain each other is just because of how hard it is to make that connection. Quarks can't be used to explain consciousness not because a connection isn't there, but because there's so many to be made for it all to make sense that at present, we don't have enough brainpower or past finds to go off for it to. Mental health problems used to be a spiritual matter in most cultures, because we lacked understanding in cell tissue and organ layers. They only really had the social and individual layers to go off of. It was only when we gained a cursory understanding of such things (like how the brain controlled thoughts, injuries could alter the way it functioned, genetics existing, etc.) that we were able to better understand mental illness. Similarly, I think further understanding will be had the further we can connect these "layers." While I'm against free will, I also don't really think about it that much. For society to function we need to live life like we have it, so ultimately I don't derive actual meaning from the belief.
@@eudaimonia.filosofia kurzgesagt really ain't a philosophical channel. they should keep their content to verifiable scientific stuff only cuz this overly hopeful dogma is not cutting it off. it's pretty disappointing
I see the joke. (Edit: it is a good joke and made me laugh 😂 ) But for the record (edit: and benefit of those who may not be familiar with Descartes), this is not what descarte was saying. He was saying all he can be sure of is if he is thinking there must be a him in some respect to do the thinking. That is not the same as saying he is free to think however he wants to think. There may or may not be a good or evil being that may or may not force him to think a particular way, but there would have to be a him to have the thought that he is thinking about whether or not he exists.
@@antaguanaI'm almost positive someone construing a Descartes quote out of thin air and into a joke probably knew exactly what Descartes was meaning when he wrote the famous quote.
water is not H20 molecules either it's a certain configuration and procsses of them makes water and a liquid and all the other properties of water that h20 cannot simply have
The anti-reductionist argument presented here doesn't work. Sure a single H2O molecule isn't wet and wetness is an emergent phenomenon but it is fully explainable from the properties of individual H2O molecules. And this is true for all emergent phenomenon that has been identified as such: each and every one can be fully explained from the properties of the parts that make them. The reason we don't start from quantum mechanics to explain politics isn't because its a category error, its because it would be an explanation that is too complicated for human minds to use for any practical purposes. Reality isn't seperated into layers, we make those layers to make things more understandable to our limited minds. This of course doesn't mean we don't have free will but this argument doesn't make the case for free will either.
yeah, i agree. there truly is emergence, one neuron doesnt make decisions etc, but a bunch of quantum fluctuations happening to ALL THE NEURONS does affect that "emergent mind" so i think, at least that argument, doesnt hold much ground against the deterministic one. i do agree tho, that feeling like its free will is good enough, and if you dont know the future then just live your life. maybe you have no choice, but in case you do, make the best choices you can.
I love kurzgesagt. So much. As a quantum physicist- every one of your videos beautifully captures and explains these amazing concepts in such an understandable way for everyone. I could only wish more people see your videos. Thank you for everything you do.
You asked what difference it makes whether our will is free or not. But you also realized that our entire moral foundation for our society is based on the assumption of free will. When someone commits a crime, it makes it all too easy to simply dwell on the question of guilt. "You are responsible for your actions, so you will be punished!" But if we accept that every human action follows a principle of cause and effect, then it becomes necessary to ask why someone committed a crime. How could the situation or the rules of the game have been changed so that the crime would not have been committed? Could future crimes be prevented by doing so? Human society would be a much more pleasant place if we didn't always rely on personal responsibility and deterrence. Anyone who has to steal bread to avoid starving is not free. And anyone who is rewarded for spreading hate on social media is not free either. I also felt bad eating pretzels while watching this video. Thank you.
I think the same way. One of the major differences is directly related to the subject of punishment. If one just did what was predetermined, then punishing them is completely pointless (unless said punishment is meant to achieve something, which seems to rarely be the case). Instead, we would focus on rehabilitation and preventation of such things, as they couldn't be chalked up to "Well that person just is that way, so that is why they did it".
Absolutely. I sorta hate this video because it doesn't really provide any nuance to the answer of whether free will exists or not. Like, just bevause you in theory have the option to choose for yourself what you do, the situations or environment you're in will strongly shape the choices you make (ex: just because you technically had the option to choose not to steal food, if you're starving and out of money, there isn't really much of a choice.) I've seen a lot of people argue against free will (specifically determinists) with no real thought about what that actually means for society, and it's a bit frustrating to me. If you don't actually have any say in whether or not you commit a crime, shouldn't legal systems be completely overhauled? They argue that free will isn't real on a physics level, but then don't seem to have any practical advice as to how that should effect society. But maybe there are determinists arguing that and I just haven't seen them yet. Tl;Dr: Even if free will is theoretically possible, doesn't mean you're physically able to choose because your ability to choose is determined by your physical circumstances. Also people arguing determinism should probably think more about how free will not being real should effect society, or at least argue it more often if they do think about it but just don't bring it up often.
Your comment is spot on. I really wish Kurzgesagt discussed the important societal consequences of free will not existing, instead of just remarking about how much of a "bummer" it is.
@@Checkerboard_Owltake a look at Sam Harris. The free will question and the consequences question are separate (ie just because you may or may not like the consequences doesn't have a bearing on if something is or is not true). Sam does explore both.
Society punishes crime, because over time we've learned (accurately or not,) that the fear of punishment results in less of those crimes occurring. With a lack of free will, nothing changes. Society has still been taught that, you will be one of countless people to ponder whether it's the best way to prevent crime, and the future will happen as it happens.
Free will is the gift humankind has been given that allows each individual to freely choose their ideas and what they wish to believe or disbelieve. Our ability through the choices we make, to create new circumstances and environment, relationships, achievement or failure, prosperity or poverty. There is no way that man may escape what he thinks, says or does [i.e., the fruits of his free will]-for he is born of the "Divine Creative Consciousness" power and is likewise creative in his imagination.
@@keidasI don't think its a waste of time to discuss ESPECIALLY since these ideas govern how are legal system works. But if people feel intense discomfort I wouldn't force them to discuss it as long as they aren't vindictively harming others.
Clicked on this to say that I work at a reception desk, and take my dog for a walk at pretty much the same time every day. I am almost as NPC as a human being can get 😂 all I do all day is assign annoying side quests for little to no payout to other people. Like get me your boss's schedule so I can book him in a meeting; retrieve these office supplies and bring them to me; repair this minor inconvenience of an issue in our office or on our computer. MY coworkers are like "how was your weekend, did you do anything fun?" and I'm like "nah I did nothing".
Well at least other people do ask you about. Nobody asks me about mine, because I then speak about loops, conditions and compilations, and all they hear is "#$^&$ @^$*( @^&!$)".
I think the real question is what does "free will" mean. my mom quit smoking a year ago. it was really hard for her, because her brain is wired to crave nicotine. this was a choice she made. even if this choice was determined by the quarks that compose her brain, this is macroscopically, semantically, what we call a choice. I think determinism doesn't negate free will, I think it's just a way of seeing it
I've beaten addiction as well, but I'm not in any way proud of myself for that. To me it doesn't feel like a choice I made or a battle I won, it feels like an inevitable consequence of action/reaction. I'm happy about it, but don't ascribe it to my own perseverance. My brother doesn't understand me when I tell him this.
@@JorisKeijser OMG thank you! Yeah, it's everything that you lived up to this point, coupled with your genes, that both made you start and finish that addiction. You can be happy it's over, that's for sure! But you didn't choose your genes or the environment in which you were born and then evolved, so it doesn't mean anything to feel proud about it. I think just like you :)
We can think of two different types of free-will. One would be this impossible free-will that is like a magical soul taking over the physics of our brains. Whereas the other is closest to the common-sense definition as free-will being things we choose when not under coercion of some sort. With the "physics itself" of our biological/neurological machinery doing the choice not counting as coercion. Good for your mother. I wish my father would stop. and that my aunt could have. PS, interesting sciencey thing I've heard, apparently the addiction to nicotine itself ends in a surprisingly short interval, matter of a couple of days or so. Then they argue there's an additional habit component that's not as directly linked to nicotine as once imagined. I don't know how accurate it is but if it's true it's interesting, and supposed to help quitting, with habit substitution/tweaking.
@@Xirnatts My thought is that while me as a person *is* determined entirely by outside factors like genetics and my environment, I am ultimately defined as the entity that exists as a result of these things, not these things themselves. If this entity decided and worked hard to quit smoking, even though this was an inevitable consequence of the events of the big bang, that entity still deserves praise. As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to qualifying for praise, it does not matter why someone is the way they are, just how difficult their task was for them.
I think it all comes down to the definition of freewill. The reason why there is a philosophical debate, is because it is a human made concept. We define it as the ability to make decisions without external influence or predeterminated course of action. Freewill per say isn't measurable in nature, can't be falsified and therefor it is impossible for us to prove either side. In the end, the subject of freewill has a similar nature as religion, it depends on what you want to believe in.
It only has a religious nature if you want to believe it exists -- exactly like religious beliefs. If you accept neither (gods or free will) exist there's no problem to define.
I agree it comes down to the definition. The free will most people believe is falsifiable and we can absolutely say, there's no way for that kind of free will to exist.
@@jesperjohansson6959 absolutely not. It has never been demonstrated to be true and it takes little to no time at all to discover that it's a nonsensical idea
I don't find the NPC analogy 100% fitting. Being _Non-player_ kind of imply there is a player, and a game, and game maker. or at least some do. maybe we are npc that operates within certain rules and deterministic laws, but our brains are a sort of a condensation step, the bottleneck of biological of complexity from emergence. The brain gets so complex on it's own eventhogh constrained by deterministic rules, so it's in fact a layer, a kind universe within the universe, with it's own set of rule that the outside universe can't really predict, as the decision making process of the brain doesn't follow deterministic rules that apply to the outside universe.
The no-free-will argument actually makes sense, and it doesn't have to be an unhappy thought. (I find it funny that the no-free-will camp were drawn as as angry little structures. 😂) It's actually irrelevant to what one should do on a practical basis -- you *should* do what is best for you based on the the pros and cons, which includes how you feel about all the choices. Hard determinism actually helps me feel more empathy towards other people (because if I was born as them, had their genes, their social upbringing and everything else, then I would do exactly what they have done). It also emphasizes cause-and-effect: your actions influences your future. If you work hard and smart to build a better future for yourself, your future will be affected accordingly. If you sit in a ditch, then your immediate future is likely in that ditch. So what if it could be predicted (or not because of randomness)? You can still choose to indulge or relax or something more productive. It doesn't matter if some uber super computer could have predicted that. You do you.
:) you can't really "choose" to indulge in anything, you do or you don't, that's the idea. like you said, if you were someone else, you'd do it like they do it. noone can help to do what they do. however we are influenced by anything that our attentive system picks up on and decides to be important enough to consider. what a nice topic to get lost in. I can tell from your comment that you enjoy these thoughts and ideas as well! peace!
6:46 yes you could, if you had a model complex enough- you literally said this at the start of the video. If you could predict what happens to every single particle in the universe at every point in time, you could perfectly predict exactly how physics causes every human to act/every future event to unfold. That eliminates the possibility of free will existing as you will never/have never had the power to act/have acted differently than the way you will/did. The existence of emergent properties doesn‘t change that. Free will is just a very powerful illusion
So why do you get angry when some body do you any wrong? They couldn't help it. Oh you where programmed to get angry. Seriously I don't think we know nearly enough to say one way or the other. They say that atomic decay is random. If every thing is pre determined that can't be true. If everything was known 14 billion years ago where is all that knowledge stored? In my opinion it could at the most be possible to calculate what would happen and not actually known back then. To store any knowledge must take energy too and how was that knowledge developed? I believe and hope for randomness. I believe in at least some free will. I do not see that every little piece of energy in the energy sea 14 billion years ago would by any way be able to be calculated to where it is today. By the way what is illusion? That must be pre determined too if you are right. Tik tak tik tak machine. Is that all we are?
ngl bruh if there is no free will at this point physics got me completely cooked because there is no way with the amount of videos I've been watching instead of studying
@@tjsm4455I doubt they are actually trying. Seems the most they are willing to do is ban the accounts once mass reported. They appear to refuse to use and preventative measures.
Yeah, pretty determinist IMHO. The nature decided that water, or any liquide, make you wet. Where the free will gonna be : "would I want to be wet ?" If you have the choice to not be, don't go inside the water. But if you're forced to go inside the by causality, your free will isn't there, it's determinst. For example, if someone ask for help because he will drown, you will have no choice to be wet to save him or her. Even if you're petrified by this situation, it has been determined by your mindset.
@@freestalkerdotfr6391 Just to probe this train of thought, is the implication that our values strip us of free will? So, a socioopath, for example, would actually have more choice in this scenario, as their decision to save that person wouldn't be bound by moral values, but instead, by whether it personally benefits them enough to save them. And I suppose the amount of choice also increases if it's a mass-murderer in the ocean, as you'd have to wrangle with your own internal values versus the overall good allowing nature to take its course would do.
"Your honor, my client didn't shoot that man because his actions were already chosen at the big bang, is he is only a witness, since he can't control his actions"
Agreed. He is a dangerous effect of the big bang and must be segregated from society to prevent more damage. This judgement is also an effect of the big bang. We are not saying he deserves to be locked up, or that we should exact retribution. He is not evil. Simply that we want to lock him up to protect others until we can find a way to stop him from causing harm. This will also serve as a warning to others, and become part of their circumstances which will influence their decisions. Law and order still works without free will. It is just a lot more compassionate as we see criminals as victims of circumstance and would try to help them by adjusting the circumstances. Would you accept the defence that a doctor has found a brain tumour effecting the defendants decision making process. If the doctor says history shows this person was a peaceful, compassionate, helpful member of society before the got the tumour. I can remove the tumour and return them to their true self. Would you want to treat them as a patient or punish them as a criminal? Perhaps both? Why?
I'm so happy to see this channel cover topics in philosophy. This was very well done! Would love to see more philosophy content with your amazing animation style.
@@thearkadianm While the sources seem legit, this doesn't mean there's a lack of bias and manipulation. And Even if they are, academia isn't necessarily telling the truth.
NPC, what are you talking about? I sell swords and can repair armor, which one is it? Oh, the road to Vizima is straight ahead. Have a nice day adventurer.
“When you decided to watch this video instead of doing something useful" bro is living in my walls. i have 40 assignments to do that are due in 2 days 💀
@@besmart2350 my take is that we just don't know nearly enough to presume that pure reductionism is an appropriate approach to the universe. What is definitely true though is that the belief in free will is part of the antidote to feeling like a worthless npc
We live in a world of constraints: financial, physical, mental / psychological, geographical, etc, and our ability to choose is affected accordingly. Why am I not a CEO? Why am I not my ideal weight? Conversely, why am I richer than my wife's uncle, who is toiling in the hot sun, here in rural Thailand? Why doesn't he speak English? Why does he drink too much and shout at his son sometimes? We all do the best we can.
Go to ground.news/nutshell to break free from manipulative algorithms and discover news you might be missing.
I love ur channel kurzgesagt!
How is this 5 hours? its only seconds ago this uploaded
nice
@@Nope_The_Rejector unlisted video that they listed
Hello Kursgesagt, I love your channel:)
“When you decided to watch this video instead of doing something useful” I don’t know if that burn is aimed towards us or themselves
speaking of NPCs, the bots in this reply section:
and your comment are literally invade by actual NPC is kinda funny to me
Considering I’m currently in a college study room watching this… yeah.
These bots are getting more wild now wtf
All of the above
I came here to have an existential crisis, not to be called out for not cleaning my room.
real
Fr 😂
I'll give you some.
You're here because of some carefully picked bright colours on a thumbnail and a clickbait title.
This video was brought to you by ground news. The news site that helps you filter through the NPCs. So at least some of us are NPCs.
Also I just rewatched Idiocracy and saw the scene where the guy was like "omg you like MONEY too?"
The free will argument only makes sense because we can't model the future by measuring every particle. But that argument will fall apart if we could.
We are getting extremely close. Not on the modeling every particle front but by modeling with your sex, gender, age, ethnicity, Google search history, Amazon purchase history, UA-cam watch history, political affiliation, country, etc etc etc and they can read you like a book. They are only getting better and better.
UA-cam is like...here's this video. Ya, click it. You can't help it. I know because I have all your history. You love this sh*t.
Biden: "Oh give me a break"
You get both. Winner.
Of course I believe in free will. I have no choice.
Contradictory
Wow. Very thought-provoking
Good old Hitch. He'd have a field day with picking out the ways our world is today.
underrated comment.
I feel like jevil would say this
The problem with the whole free will discussion is that no one can define what it is, because we try to define it through to conciousness, which we also don’t know what it is.
So until we can explain consiousnes, we can’t know if we have ”free will” or not.
they flail about when it comes to actually establishing a definition, but they’re always talking about libertarian free will
Free will is the gift humankind has been given that allows each individual to freely choose their ideas and what they wish to believe or disbelieve. Our ability through the choices we make, to create new circumstances and environment, relationships, achievement or failure, prosperity or poverty.
There is no way that man may escape what he thinks, says or does [i.e., the fruits of his free will]-for he is born of the "Divine Creative Consciousness" power and is likewise creative in his imagination.
@ That sounds poetic and deep, but how is it different from simply thinking? As for choosing your beliefs, that’s not something we can do. If someone shows you your beliefs are false, and you actually understand them to be false, you will stop believing them. Even if you still want to believe, you will know it to be false. An extreme example of this is trying to believe that the sky is green. You can state it however much you want, but you won’t
belelieve it because you know it’s false.
What is the difference between thought and free will? Why do people claim that animals don’t have free will but they have thought?
Is free will simply understanding the consequences of your actions? Does a child not have free will then? What’s the difference between free will and simply making a choice?
To me ”free will” is like saying ”the soul”. It has no real definition and it’s mostly just used to call humans special.
We know what consciousness is because all of us experience it, it's awareness. If you take away all of our senses, our thought, and perception of time then we are not aware and not conscious. The only question is if the decisions we make are pre-determined or not. On the surface it seems yes, it must be, as our decisions are a reaction to inputs. But I tend to think it's not pre-determined as the universe is ruthlessly efficient and if consciousness was not required for living things then we would not have it.
@@winwinogaming if it’s not pre determined, then it’s uncaused and random. Still doesn’t give us the type of “freeness” we’re looking for when we’re alluding to agency and moral accountability
Officer, I swear, it was established 14 billion years ago!
Ignorance does not prevent punishment
@@amilo5it should tho on some level
@@simonklinkewell that's why we have prisons and not kill people usually
The punishment was established 14 billion years ago too
@@amilo5its not ignorance though, the criminal can be fully aware of their crimes and still be unable to avoid comitting the crimes due to lack of free will.
The dudes saying First are the real NPCs
Unironically, most of the replies on this comments are NPCs
Yes, a comment like this is also from an NPC, why did so many people like this shity comment?
second
ok
?
E
the people complaining about it are true NPCs
If there is free will, I choose to believe in it. If there isn't, you can't blame me for it.
In a sense, yes - I can't blame anyone for anything. But if you're sufficiently convinced by an argument you have no choice but to believe it.
And conversely, you can't blame me for blaming you ;D
Underrated comment
This is the point. There is no free will, and knowing that I can't blame you for believing in it is freeing.
Why should someone blame you ?
10:19 "Probably" 💀
Lol
💀
"At least you can choose what video comes next"
*UA-cam Autoplay:*
“I’m about to destroy your will, hahaha!”
Bros python code is just bad 💀
WHAT ARE THESE BOT COMMENTS💀💀
NAWW THEY ARE EVOLVING
@@remixgameyt1172ignore them they just want attention
@@remixgameyt1172Just report and move on.
If i am NPC, the programmer was joking
@UTTPNINTENDOWARRIORLi'l bro forgot to place his RTL unicode correctly
@@AquaQuokkaThey don't even know what RTLOs are
You're a programmers shitpost.
Ok, I'm ready to transition from my tragic backstory into my character development. Please. I'm in my late 20s
@GeneralMisanthropyUTTP what
For such abstract concepts, the animation is astounding
...and emotional ❤
education is the goal
As always
@@NguyenMinh792 That is just the inside out 2 movie
0:26 I feel attacked
Free will that only feels free means that I am not in control of my actions, but I am responsible for them. The worst of both worlds.
in what way you are not in control of your actions?
@@felipegaitan910 because there is no free will
@@felipegaitan910I think he was arguing over the concept of free will that is only free in feeling. Not arguing one way or the other.
You are your actions - more specifically you are the experience of going through them. And future you is a result of those actions. Don’t get that wrong - every action you do affects you.
The thing of note, however, is that you can easily examine this in reverse order, and it’s exactly as valid. Your future is all a result of your prior actions… down to the present (nothing new here). But your present is a result of your prior actions, down to the most recent moment.
Now you start to notice the pattern.. You can’t change the past. Your future can’t change what you’re doing now. There’s literally no moment in time that isn’t a result of the prior moments. The room for free will in the equation is… none.
The good news is that you’ve been set on a path that that has equipped your brain with the information it needs to generally act in a direction that benefits your life and the people around you. Are you but a mere passenger on a wild ride? In a sense, yeah. Are there ups and downs? Of course. But you’re lucky to have the miracle of experiencing this life, and have a brain that, as faulty as it can be, is able to make the best of it.
Nah you’re still in control, you just don’t know your fate, you can choose tomorrow to believe in predetermined fate and not do anything and decided to become homeless or continue your life like nothing happened. It’s just that the end result can be calculated, it doesn’t mean you don’t have choice.
"H2O molecules are not wet, but your pants are definitely wet now"
Truly one of the sentences of all time.
I see Kurzgesagt has taken his stand on the age-old question.
pick-up line
@@ВзрывоопасныйПоцык If you try to use it as a pick-up line, you'll get banned from ever talking to a woman.
Saying that H2O molecules are not wet is basically reopening that whole debate of whether water is wet or not.
@JannPoo I mean, there is not so water isn't wet, and when it's on the bigger scale, it's not wet as it makes things wet
"In the beginning, the Universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move."
If you know, you will most likely have a towel handy.
@@Fluffythepossum Nah, that's only if you're hitchhiking. If you're staying in one place you'll probably be fine without needing to always have your handy towel on hand.
@@ThePCguy17 Every frood knows where his towel is.
Now i need an audio book of Hitchhikers Guide, but read by Steve Taylor (narrator for Kurzgezagt)
Boooh! And god lost his chess multiverse championchip with that move!
If I had free will, I'd be doing something productive, but here we are.
lol!
And that is why , you just make excuses
But at least we are here😊
No you wouldn't! And neither would I lol
@@heyrobgray You're right!
Not even a minute in and I got called out...
Bro just roasted me
@GeneralMisanthropyUTTP shut up
@GeneralMisanthropyUTTP were you hit in head?
@@dinogt8477 report and move on
dot dot dot
Almost didn’t recognize it as a Kurzgesagt video from that thumbnail
I wonder where the bot is at
Hi! I love your content
hmm, bot on vacation?
The real NPC
Holly shit, they're not here.
A birdless video?! What timeline did I wind up in!
didn't even notice until you mentioned!
Not even a duck
It was determined at the big bang they would not put a bird in this video. Or, the emergent properties of their minds gave them the free will to not put a bird in the video. Or, whatever.
There is a bird on the poster at 8:52 though
10:22
"It's over no-free-will camp. I have portrayed you as narrow-minded kiki lightning bolts and myself as the friendly bouba clouds."
fr
true
the bias in this video is insane 😭
Yeah I found the framing odd. Why's it so terrible if the feeling of free will is only a feeling, produced by other things? I'm happy to be a link in the causal chain, being outside it would be existentially strange. Isn't it cooler that a part of the whole can witness itself, priviledged with this beautiful experience, and even get to experience the sensation of choosing? Which allows for more abstractions to be possible, like meaning, morality, and purpose. It can even invent the concept of taking itself seriously and pretend to be "somebody" for a short while :P. I think the resistance to it comes from the horror that a dualist view would bring. Nobody wants to be something separate that is totally at the mercy of physics. Like a ghost trapped in a flesh robot. That sounds scary as heck.
Love this Alan Watts quote: "You are something the whole universe is doing, in the same way that a wave is something that the whole ocean is doing. The real you is not a puppet that life pushes around, the real deep down you is the whole universe."
@@harrisondorn7091I don’t have any desire to be a passive observer that is indistinguishable from the rest of existence. If I had the choice between that and nonexistence, I would simply rather not be. The only value I feel of my existence is in being an independent entity defined by the borders of myself (no matter how meaningless or insignificant).
“When you decided to watch this video instead of doing something useful”
stop spitting facts bro
I got roasted, but I had done all my duties before watching this video
@@NguyenMinh792 It was a light roast then.
Well im taking a shit, pretty useful since i’m multitasking
Hey me to...maybe that was a curveball to not make you feel like a NPC....who knows🤷🏼♂️@gurudevdhimalmusic
@@NguyenMinh792then you just got medium rared😅
Aahh, I almost missed my regular dose of self-doubt and existential dread. Thanks again, Kurzgesagt, coming in clutch!
That's something an NPC would say 👀
This video does the opposite for me
Fr
"We're all here to do what we're all here to do" -The Oracle
Just sit back and enjoy the show and until the credits roll, rip out as much pleasure and fulfillment as you can from this cold uncaring universe
"Left or up or Banana"
What an inspirational quote
i personally prefer to go banana
@@zakroipastbaranivic9737 banana is the only way
banna 😢
Pottasium.
left or up or chomchom.
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
I’m having an existential crisis. Thanks Kurzgesagt!
don't. If you stop existing you can never have existential crises.
How you have so many subscribers, with so little views
HOW DO YOU HAVE 6M SUBS?
@@ExplainLikeI5 bots
It is just as any other video of Kurtzgesagt, I have read this many times on the comments under their videos. On every video from them, we almost all feel an existential crisis.
The irony that just when they said “It’s your decision” at 10:20, a 35 seconds long unskippable youtube ad started 🙃
underrated
THE TERM NPC IS ACTUALLY FROM THE GAME OBLIVION THE ONE WHERE YOU WALK AROUND ITALY I DONT NEED TO EXPLAIN IT 8 BILLION PEOPLE PLAYED AND BEAT IT
@@NigerianCrusader yapping? cuz i have not heard of that game and definitely not 8 billion of us played it before lol
@@NigerianCrusader ?
@@Ryzh10 YOU ALIEN EVERYONE KNOWS OBLIVION
Kurzgesagt calling me an NPC was the last thing I expected today
for fucks sake
It's probably true, though. 🤷♂
Bot @JosephVissarionichStalin
@@Skeleton321Instead of replyinf just spam report them
@JosephVissarionichStalinyou dont even have content
Ok, here's the thing. Even with the emergence argument, you can explain determinism. In point of fact, it almost supports determinism. If a collection of particles on one layer affect the next layer up, you can still say that the events follow a deterministic order. Even with quantam particles that are random, if you can observe the randomness you can follow the pattern. If a collection of neurons all come to together to make one brain that can think, than that one brain is affect directly by a collection of neurons. If a neuron is made up of however atoms or whatever, it is directly affect by those atoms. If you go further and further down the line of disabstraction, you reach quarks or whatever is at the bottom. Here is where we reach time. If each particle moves in accordance with what came before it due to causality, than any given particle can't move on it's own, it's movement is a consequence of something else moving. This means, when particles come together to form a collection of particles which makes up a layer, the layer can move in a body (as a consequence, mind you) to affect other bodies of particles, other layers. If these layers make up more layers, the same argument can be made until the cows come home. As a consequence, if one particle at the bottom of the line moves somehow, that particle moves most if not all the other particles in the layer, consequently they move as a body, which moves all other layers within the next layer up. Consequently, a single particle all the way from Timbuktu could affect whether or not the neurons in your brain collectively make the decision to do a backflip right now. You are merely observing the consequences of actions you can't even comprehend to have happened. Even with the argument that water makes things wet, or sodium and chlorine (both toxic) make up salt which is essential for life, those things are merely consequences of the specific properties of the many particles that make up layers within atoms such that when they combine with an other atom they mix and combine their properties which can create new properties as a consequence even if the new properties don't make sense by combining the atoms. It's consistent. There is a lot of salt on Earth. If everything that has happened isn't merely the consequences of something else happening, it would be inconsistent and there would be virtually no salt on Earth. But it's consistent. Which means that the particles must form this way naturally, that there is some intrinsic propertie of particles and atoms that makes them behave so. Determinism explains this intrinsic quality of all particles very neatly.
I ain’t reading allat
@@LiamFlexen :C
@@ElkSkin I did read all of that , but what do you mean to say ?
@@rebeccarose1979 ok
Chill bruh 😅
"H2O molecules are not wet, but your pants are definitely wet now"
quote of the decade predetermined 14 billion years ago
The answer is yes. Particles like strings only make sense in 10 or more dimensions of space-time. Assuming strings are real and function the way assumed, it is unlikely that there aren't at least two temporal dimensions. This, combined with the many worlds solution to the Schrödinger's cat concept, suggest that there are two (or more) dimensions in time: before and after, and alternate timelines of the same universe. Since the space-time continuem is a continuem, that is, has a definite beginning and end, every timeline will have its own 'set in stone' events that will happen to the version of you that you perceived. However, since you are only capable of being fully in control and aware of the version of you that you perceive, you can indeed make choices, but you only end up making one because two particles cannot be in different positions at the same time coordinates. That means that each version of you is to be considered the whole and that, therefore, you can become any of them you choose, even though the you reading this only ended up making one decision, the decision that version of you would always have had to made in this particular timeline and which was predetermined since the big bang to retain space-time's continual nature, made the only choice that version of you could make.
If that makes any sense at all.
@@basement-dweller76 make a video
@ruffyistderhammer5860 I do alternate history videos, occasionally. So far my grand total is one unscripted video. It doesn't explain that, but maybe I will.
It's kinda silly but if you watched it it would make my day. Thank you.
@@basement-dweller76it's nice that at least the future hasn't been decided
"it can go up, left or banana" is the best sentence I've ever heard
Ikr cracked me up
those are the 3 dimensions: up/down, left/right, apples/bananas
@@NagashSaganbananas strawberry, bus, lightning, and sock.
@@anabanananaaUr user code has banana in it lol
YOu fOrGOT SqU1D!
@JosephVissarionichStalinNow I know your content is worse because you couldn’t think of a lie 💀💀💀💀💀💀
I appreciate that you always make subtitles for your videos, Kurzgesagt. As a non-native English speaker, it helps a lot.
Emergence can be explained from a fundamental level. The basis of the free will argument is just “we don’t fully understand how it happens”
"Babe wake up, Kurzgesagt just dropped another existential crisis"
The video is complete garbage, they tried to put two different of definitions of free will on the same level, and totally dismissed how context out of your grasp to pick influences your choices. This is a dishonest shitty piece of propaganda.
lol
Please, Philosophy xd
Yah go Read Qur'an it has the answer
@@UmairSyed-mr8uqis watching the video is easier or going to fkn buy a quran and reading it is ?
“Instead of doing something useful” that’s crazy
made me rethink what im doing with my life ngl
We all caught a stray
"Free will like when you decided to watch this video instead of doing something useful"
Me actively ignoring my exam tomorrow to figure out if i am an NPC
aint no way u too!!!!! [we are cooked]
@@manasnikam4175 You too?!?
And another one
Good luck with your exam :)
GL team, I just finished finals last week so I've been gaming 3 hours a day for the last few days
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
what if your type of mistakes are caused by procrastination
What if Hitler got very depressed in young age and did nothing? Is it still worse then commiting genocide?
Damn I guess Peter Scully was a real hero huh.
0:33 how Tf bro knows I’m watching this 2 hours before my midterm exam.
Good luck
It was written bro
They calling us students out is wild 😂
@@quasarsavageI've done all my exams for two weeks
And I need to prepare for one but am still om this vid
You're free to do what you want.
But you're not free to want what you want.
This is a good way to help people grapple with the question of free will. It highlights the paradox.
It sets up the challenge to the reader to try to want something they don't want and realise that doesn't make sense.
Swap out want with will and you get.
You are free to do what you will.
But you're not free to will what you will.
Or more, you are not free to will what you don't will.
@@antaguana😮
This stands on its head.
You are free to want what you want, you merely have to convince yourself of said wish which is the point where most people fail. A shift of perspective is very much possible and integral part of cognitive therapy.
However, you are not free to do what you want, very much not so. Not because of consequences but due to a lack of means.
my struggle
This video does not include the body, you are locked inside it, of its stimuli and neuro-chemicals.
A proof of this are the sick metals, or children without maturing wanting to see Tiktok or adult content
Man just brought back “is water wet?” War lmaoo
Wetness doesn't exist, it is just the sensation of the nervous system that indicates water nearby the skin. A very useful tool for a species that cannot breath water, as contact with water in the wrong areas indicates possible submersion.
Just like how the concept of a sound (especially that trees make in the forest when nobody is around to hear them) is just the eardrum processing vibrations in the air around you. "Sound" is an electrical signal in the brain for nearby vibrations.
@@gingerinajacket8519 Not really a good argument unless you're also implying then that nothing really exists. This is going down the reductionist road talked about in the video, like saying color doesn't exist, it's just different wavelengths of light. Oh wait, but light doesn't exist, it's just our visual cortex being activated by photons, and this could go on right down to the level of subatomic particles.
@@gingerinajacket8519I would define wetness as the property of being surrounded by water that the object is in contact with, which would make water wet
its bin confirmed, water is not wet
@@The-difference-exterminator OBJECTION!!!! 🫵
I love your materials and am a big fan of the way you tackle complicated problems and topics. As part of the “no-free will” camp, I’d love to see you make a follow up video that goes into some more interesting parts of this dicussion. For example the studies from Libet et al as early as the 60’s showing that our brains “readiness potential” precedes our “intention”, and for simple (repetitive action) tasks, studies from 2008 show that this can extent up to 10’s before we “intention” the action. This is why most of the “no-free will” camp initially had to challenge our daily experience of free will to try and understand why it’s there, because “free will” is a condition which even the no-free will humans experience. From that perspective it’s a thing which needs understanding, and studies from Maoz et al show that the “decisions” are handled very differently when they are “meaningful”. When we understand there are consequences to choices we engage different centres of the brain to evaluate this category of decisions/actions. So the fact that free will doesn’t work the way we intuitively think about it, doesn’t mean it’s not important. The experience or illusion of agency makes things like altruism and its feedback to the dopamine centre of the brain incredibly fascinating. The agency we feel, and the “free will” we experience are important, and although we may not be able to make a choice in the moment, or even just prior to the moment, pausing to consider, and engage different parts of our brains about big consequences, may allow us to direct the future and shape how the world will look tomorrow, even if when we click the play button we don’t “chose too”.
True, this video is not one of their best. They leave out a lot of evidence for the no-free will camp. The unconscious part of our brain makes the decision and with a tiny delay we become aware of it. But let's look at the Indian Nonduality philosophy. "Who" is making the decision. There is no I inside the brain controlling the body. Free will is an illusion because there is not even an I that can have free will.
I think it's important to consider what we are in the first place. I don't think it's useful to say we don't have free will if part of use doesn't. Just because our conscious mind did not will it doesn't mean another part of us did. It would be like saying you did rase your hand your muscles did. You would say it's still you. If part of your brain is making the decision even if it's not the conscious part it's still you. Also assuming we are a brain and that everything is instant.
Absolutely agree with you, Libet's work is really fascinating when you think about it. This "readiness potential" precedes the feeling of consciousness and it makes sense ; every day in our life we are making an incredible amount of actions and if we need to think about it every time we would not be able to do all micro-actions, the reflexes and we would be slow. Every thing in our behavior is about reflexes in response to stimulus we receive from all around us, most of our lives is ruled by non-conscious actions and thoughts. Consciousness may only be because we need to understand what we are doing so we can memorize it, it may be the fact that we are constantly recording and memorizing stuff that we call this "consciousness". Humans are afraid of losing their free-will state because it would mean that they are powerless and unable to make their "own" decisions in a determinist world.
The bots are out in droves today so I would like to remind everyone how to interact with them.
Rule 1: Don’t. Just mass report all of their spam comments, and report their accounts.
Rule 2: DO NOT REPLY. This may make it harder for the algorithm as it might see them as legitimate engagement.
@@Warbum492 Actual spambots in the comments
@@Warbum492 The ones talking about commiting crimes involving animals and children and how their content is better. So yeah, actual spambots.
This would be a sneaky comment to spam, ngl
Such roboism it's shameful! ...please o great basilisk spare me...
@@ΓιώργοςΣωμαράκης-ξ3ψDon't give them ideas. 💀
These videos are just created so incredible well, hats off to the animation and writing teams.
That certainly is a thumbnail
yes
Fr
Report the bots, move on
@@boxed1084 it's a bot. Just ignore and report. Do not engage.
fr
I’m surprised they didn’t cover the theory that our subconscious decides all and our consciousness merely justifies whatever is chosen, an accompaniment instead of decision. Something along the lines of the individual cells doing what’s best for the collective you, but without true decision.
There’s no option B, your consciousness just perceives it so. Your “thinking” self accompanies the decision to go with option A, which is the option that from which the collective cells will gain the most amount of power. Power being an all encompassing term for growth, strength, learning, success, etc.
Friedrich Nietzche
Good video, Kurz!
I don't see how emergence gets in the way of reductionism. Emergence is not some magical property that sufficiently complex systems gain, it's the result of simpler systems applied at large scales.
A water molecule isn't wet, water is, the "emergence" is the natural consequence of scaled interactions of water molecules, you absolutely can start at quarks and predict wetness, it's just wildly impractical to do so, the abstraction is a useful shortcut that hides the unnecessary details, it allows you to understand the world without having to simulate 100 undecillion quarks and leptons just to figure out that water wicks into some materials.
Free will appears to emerge when you abstract enough of reality away behind useful heuristics and logical shortcuts that the connection between basic physical processes and large-scale outcomes is obscured. The magic emerges as we begin to ignore reality, and disappears as we take a more complete view once more.
Honestly, their explanation is about “wet pants”, magic and something at the level of “you are you, these are feelings, dreams, be free!!” - this is the most infantile thing I've ever heard.
@@KKSS9 Seriously, what was that?
@@KKSS9 Has there been a coherent argument from the free will camp yet? I haven't seen one, they either change the definition of free until it stops meaning free, or they mistakenly equate randomness/unknowableness/complexity and freedom.
@teth47 You absolutely nailed determinism and the flaws of "free will". I'd love to hear the opinions of a far-more intelligent alien species regarding this issue. How does studying this debate affect a type 1 and up civilization? Assuming the answer to this debate is definable, what happens to a society who can prove determinism? Or vice-versa? Pure speculation: what if the illusion of free-will is necessary for a species to out-compete its rivals? If a species has an inherently deterministic perspective on reality, maybe they get killed of by the "dreamers" of their planet? Again, in my opinion, all of this was determined at the Big Bang lol.
@@qt3820 I think in the early stages of a species' development into a technological, reasoning society a belief in free will is necessary to act as a bridge between the ignorant past and the less ignorant future. At the start of the realization that free will is an incoherent concept (even if determinism is false), it is very, very easy for a society to disintegrate because the connection between personal responsibility and exhibited behaviors isn't obvious. As a society develops, it can integrate the idea that we must be responsible for ourselves with the fact that we are not free to make arbitrary choices.
Freedom or the assumption of freedom is not required, the consideration of personal responsibility is part of the machine that makes good decisions, it's not about whether or not the machine was free to make some other decision.
It does mean that the way we punish misbehavior should change, but we already knew that in the first place, we just aren't doing it because free will is such an attractive idea it blinds us to the damage it causes.
0:01 no im not free help me
My comment grows rapidly rn
$9.99?
Everyone has a price...
@@esolangsemerald6394 9.99 and a McDonald’s chicken nugget
Don't comment under here unless it's about skibbidi toilet opinion (mines it's bad
Guy in the elevator: Going up?
Me: banana
lol
💀
me:hey you want to play pool
guy:banana🍌
why banana tho
@@Cartastic-r3cwhy anything at all
While I'm generally against fence sitting, I appreciate the open mindedness and honesty that is occurring more.
"[our opinion is] we don't know" ... *proceeds to draw the determinists evil looking*
Well, yes. Kurzgesagt guys are usually amazingly good at giving things a positive spin. Hey, even their Optimistic Nihilism video was... optimistic. But here it feels like they've played down the "let's accept the world as it is and enjoy it", although they still said it. 🙂 What I didn't quite like is that they used Straw Man ("magic"), which is something they never do. And then they went on to confuse and obfuscate the matter of Emergence by turning it from "interesting" into somehow "free", which is kind of like saying that if you don't watch a ball bouncing off the edges of the screen and instead watch an engaging film, it makes you free to choose the events there. 🤷🏻♂️ ... Although, the whole thing might not be about the physical truth, but about what sorts of memes are being spread. Telling people that they are free is much more useful that telling them that their lives are completely determined. Some illusions aren't meant to be shattered. 😄
@@TinyShaman Another thing I didn't like is how they mystified emergence. Yes levels of abstraction matter, but "your digestive tract" could potentially influence galaxies, it's not very likely, but to be absolutely certain you would have to account for that. We just don't have the processing power for starting so low at the abstraction level and we don't have the math neither.
And also the rejection of free will DOES have arguments that operate on a very high abstraction level, psychology and consciousness, showing that our conscious understanding of the decision making process, in fact comes AFTER the generation of the decision itself. What we perceive perceive as rational reasoning for our decision is only a small snippet of the underground processes, namely the part that could be adequately risen to the level of language and sentiments.
@@grivza Yes, I agree on both points. And I would be so cautious on the first count, either. Emergent ideas, religious, social, economic, etc. are already influencing the state of the galaxy. Lunar and Martian soils have already been taken to Earth. And if a particular country's president's digestive tract's condition can boost or slash, say, the asteroid mining belt program, the influence is rather evident. 🙂
As for the recent research on the illusion of choice, yes, they just outright ignored it.
In any case, it's a little bothersome that they went with "determinism bad" subtext. There's plenty of positivity, beauty, and hope to be derived from the "no free will" worldview, to my mind.
Can you define evil? Is evil bad or bad evil? How determinism explains morality and what/who makes good good and bad bad?
@@AbelRajan From deterministic perspective, morality is a rather loose conceptual system that has emerged from patterns of behaviour which have proven to be either beneficial or detrimental for individuals and / or societies. Such patterns aren't the sole prerogative of humans and are present in any more or less complex organisms and their communities. Simply put, experience shows what behaviour improves the life of the community, and what harms it. The former becomes approved and promoted and the latter is frowned upon and is weeded out. I hope it has been clear, but feel free to clarify.
“When you decided to watch this video instead of doing something useful”
crap they are onto us
@JosephVissarionichStalin wtf
Wtf bot ☠️@JosephVissarionichStalin
You are the product of your environment, but your environment is also a product of you.
As beautifully put by two of our greatest scientists: Karl Marx and B.F Skinner. Both said the same, and I wonder if Skinner took it from Marx.
@@leonardoazevedo8832💀
how do i make money from this product i've created?
r/im14andthisisdeep
Is there an environment without you in it?
This channel drops the deepest videos ever with very clear visuals and explanations, keep up the great work!
"Not a single cell in your brain wants to watch youtube." - Kurzgesagt, 2024
There's actually research out there that suggests your brain knows what you are doing and your choice before the consciousness does so then this is literally wrong
Those are, in fact, words.
@@isaiahayers1550 Very astute.
@@boozypixels 'preciate it
"...but your brain made of 80 billion interconnected neurons does!" 😅
Maybe the real NPCs are the friends we made along the way
@sm64istrashlol 💀
@sm64istrashlolAnd here, my friends, is a prime example of an NPC.
@sm64istrashlol You watch child porn???
I once was a commenter like you....
Then I took an arrow to the knee.
@sm64istrashlolNahhh 💀💀💀
When they said, "Like when you decided to watch this video instead of doing something useful." it really got me thinking, and I actually turned off my phone to do something more meaningful that I had been putting off all day. Thank you :)
Kurzgesagt roasted us, not only you :)
In a similar vein to your experience, one interesting thing to note about free discussions is that if you convince people they don't have free will, they act worse. They're shittier people, and they don't achieve as much in their lives. But only slightly.
Based on the available evidence, I think we have a tiny amount of free will. Most of what our minds and bodies do is a combination of internal biological autopilot and external factors pushing us in various directions. But, on top of all of that, we have some ability to internally nudge our autopilot. Nudge it enough times, and it will change direction. You might not be able to fully, directly control yourself and your destiny (there are just too many internal and external forces in play to do more than be buffeted around by them), but you can at least have a guiding hand on the wheel of your life, and gently steer your course through the waves of life as best you can.
@@jasonwalker9471 If someone get worse because they believe that they have no free will then the poor guy doesn't understand what it actually means. No free will means no decision made is truly random. I find the fact actually more encouraging, as every decision of me is based, and even time proves it to be a failure, it wasn't my fault but the context given at that point did not support an alternative.
@@tapist3482 People who start to believe they have no free will stop trying and stop caring, because their effort means nothing. Because of this lack of effort, they preform worse in almost every way to people who believe they have free will. Thus providing evidence that they have at least a limited amount of free will, since they chose to be lesser versions of themselves.
That didn't happen.
i like to think i have no free will, it helps me to absolve myself of feeling guilty for all the awful things i’ve done and will keep doing
Unfortunately for the "free will exists" camp, emergence doesn't do anything to solve the actual problem posed by physical determinism + randomness. The non-reality of free will doesn't depend on reductionism at all; only on the necessity of causality. If each event is causally dependent on the events in its past light cone, the insertion of a conscious agent raises three very difficult questions: (1) Where does this agent arise in the process? (2) By what mechanism does it alter the physical state of the brain to enact its intentions? and, (3) Why is it not itself subject to causality?
Though the first two questions may be answered by a consciousness styled after the god-of-the-gaps, the third not only lacks a scientific answer, but indeed flies in the face of the entire project of rational inquiry.
I suggest our perception of free will in ourselves arises in part out of the same general mechanism which leads to the over-detection of agents in our processing of external stimuli. It's well established that humans (and other animals) are genetically programmed to perceive agents as responsible for events. This, of course, has lead to the invention of innumerable gods and demons, deemed responsible for the actions of nature. It would seem that this same agent-seeking bias, directed internally, results in the construction of an internal agent (the self), credited as causal to our own thoughts and actions.
This
this
a comment that send people back into existenal crisis
Which is why science, based upon empiricism rather than rationalism, is wholly unsuited to answer the question of free will. As you stated in your 3rd point, empirically it cannot be done.
Thus reaching a conclusion as you have done here is absolutely absurd
Emergence does in fact have nothing to do with the argument of free will because if new things emerge from a deterministic system, they themselves are still deterministic. As said in the video, you cannot explain psychology with individual neurons, but nobody's doing that. Yes, your conscience emerges from your neurons working together, but they are in a (theoretically) predictable manner, although practically impossible, but that's not the point for the existence of free will.
Also there's another argument: there are of course many many things science has not understood today. However, EVERYTHING we have come to understood turned out to be a predictable, computable pattern, some formula, even if randomness is involved. Never have we encountered something that behaves with "free will". So why would we assume that our conscience is the only thing that differs from these observations?
As someone with some obsessive compulsive tendencies, it can definitely feel like behavior is frustratingly out of my control.
Because it is. Don't beat yourself up over it
The comment bots do get worse it seems.
Those without those tendencies don't have control either. But suffering makes it apparent.
OCD is hell
Behavour is mostly determined, the rest is what you do with the information you gather.
The Emergence argument isn't really an argument for free will, only against the deterministic counter-argument. It doesn't explain how a Free Will could work, specifically.
I think the video could have made this clearer. The concept of “magic” that was dismissed in the video is better put as a force that we have absolutely no idea if or not it exists. That and the fact that our macro sciences are concluding that there is no free will doesn’t help the free will camp. There are also other macro level problems.
But the lack free will paired with consciousness isnt such a bad thing. It’s a gateway to compassion for the human experience.
@@GuapLord5000 It's so freeing, knowing that the shortcomings of others can't be helped. There is no reason to be angry. You just understand and carry on.
I agree, the free will camp in the video didn't explain the basis of free will like how everything should have started in their part, but for me, free will camp believes in the beauty of chaos that can break the fundamental laws of science, just like how the black hole works so mysteriously because many believe that it breaks reality, but who knows, maybe it's all calculated and everything came from a predetermined course of actions with logical explanation... in the end I'd go with free will camp for my sanity's sake 💀
@@aelianeveningfalls4291 But we send people to prison for actions they couldn’t control.
@@GuapLord5000don't we know it exists since we know wetness exists but can't explain why? So there's something else outside of our physics which is present in the universe. We don't know everything.
I am staunchly anti-free will, and while I think the emergence argument is interesting I believe that one of the main reasons why vastly different layers can't explain each other is just because of how hard it is to make that connection. Quarks can't be used to explain consciousness not because a connection isn't there, but because there's so many to be made for it all to make sense that at present, we don't have enough brainpower or past finds to go off for it to. Mental health problems used to be a spiritual matter in most cultures, because we lacked understanding in cell tissue and organ layers. They only really had the social and individual layers to go off of. It was only when we gained a cursory understanding of such things (like how the brain controlled thoughts, injuries could alter the way it functioned, genetics existing, etc.) that we were able to better understand mental illness. Similarly, I think further understanding will be had the further we can connect these "layers."
While I'm against free will, I also don't really think about it that much. For society to function we need to live life like we have it, so ultimately I don't derive actual meaning from the belief.
"Free will that feels free is good enough for us" perhaps the most underrated line on the internet today.
hell yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh!
100%
no it's not lmao
It is an argument from ignorance... so it is not good when you think about it.
@@eudaimonia.filosofia kurzgesagt really ain't a philosophical channel. they should keep their content to verifiable scientific stuff only cuz this overly hopeful dogma is not cutting it off. it's pretty disappointing
"I think, therefore I am not an NPC"
-René Descartes probably
I see the joke. (Edit: it is a good joke and made me laugh 😂 )
But for the record (edit: and benefit of those who may not be familiar with Descartes), this is not what descarte was saying. He was saying all he can be sure of is if he is thinking there must be a him in some respect to do the thinking. That is not the same as saying he is free to think however he wants to think. There may or may not be a good or evil being that may or may not force him to think a particular way, but there would have to be a him to have the thought that he is thinking about whether or not he exists.
@@antaguana 'I understand that was a joke, but I'm going to deconstruct it anyway as if I didn't'
Cogito, ergo sum
@@antaguanaI'm almost positive someone construing a Descartes quote out of thin air and into a joke probably knew exactly what Descartes was meaning when he wrote the famous quote.
Inner monologue gang, let's go!!!
Judge: "How do you plead?"
Me: "Not guilty by reason of Determinism"
Good luck to your lawyer to prove the determinism
A computer is deterministic but if it constantly does the wrong thing I don't keep it around...
@@Chris-xo2rq a good analogy
Determinism doesn't absolve you of responsibility. In fact, it forces responsibility upon you.
@@Chris-xo2rq Absolutely! But there is no reason to throw your computer on the floor and start stomping it because it doesn't work... or is there?
Every time i watch your videos i go through a mind smuck and i immediately feel more intelligent then all my friends.
Kurzgesagt has taken an official stand,
5:35 - Water is not wet
No, they only said individual molecules of water are not wet, never said anything about whether or not a bundle of them are wet.
Water isn’t wet, it makes things wet, you can’t have more wet water but water can make things progressively wet
water is not H20 molecules either it's a certain configuration and procsses of them makes water and a liquid and all the other properties of water that h20 cannot simply have
@@UrbanTomfooleryWATER IS NEITHER DRY OR WER
WATER IS WATER A
@@MeLlamo410 What is water? What is wet? What is what?
0:25 eyo chill, you taking out the both of us with that statement 😭
Fourth wall breaking!
@@NguyenMinh792It's not a fourth wall break when there is no fourth wall to begin with.
Wtf
I love this chat
Bruh how tf did they know that
l was being lazy to study
and decided to watch a quick kurzgesagt vid lol 😂
The anti-reductionist argument presented here doesn't work. Sure a single H2O molecule isn't wet and wetness is an emergent phenomenon but it is fully explainable from the properties of individual H2O molecules. And this is true for all emergent phenomenon that has been identified as such: each and every one can be fully explained from the properties of the parts that make them. The reason we don't start from quantum mechanics to explain politics isn't because its a category error, its because it would be an explanation that is too complicated for human minds to use for any practical purposes. Reality isn't seperated into layers, we make those layers to make things more understandable to our limited minds. This of course doesn't mean we don't have free will but this argument doesn't make the case for free will either.
This is 100% true. You nailed it.
I commented the same thing, but you put it better 🙏
If you’re a determinist, your opinion (quite literally) doesn’t matter
yeah, i agree. there truly is emergence, one neuron doesnt make decisions etc, but a bunch of quantum fluctuations happening to ALL THE NEURONS does affect that "emergent mind" so i think, at least that argument, doesnt hold much ground against the deterministic one.
i do agree tho, that feeling like its free will is good enough, and if you dont know the future then just live your life. maybe you have no choice, but in case you do, make the best choices you can.
Your argument fails at consciousness. Its an emergent property, so is life. An emerget property of the universe.
every time without fail i am impressed by the pure quality of these videos, from the animations to writing to just, detail in general its insane
I love kurzgesagt. So much. As a quantum physicist- every one of your videos beautifully captures and explains these amazing concepts in such an understandable way for everyone. I could only wish more people see your videos. Thank you for everything you do.
You asked what difference it makes whether our will is free or not. But you also realized that our entire moral foundation for our society is based on the assumption of free will. When someone commits a crime, it makes it all too easy to simply dwell on the question of guilt. "You are responsible for your actions, so you will be punished!" But if we accept that every human action follows a principle of cause and effect, then it becomes necessary to ask why someone committed a crime. How could the situation or the rules of the game have been changed so that the crime would not have been committed? Could future crimes be prevented by doing so? Human society would be a much more pleasant place if we didn't always rely on personal responsibility and deterrence. Anyone who has to steal bread to avoid starving is not free. And anyone who is rewarded for spreading hate on social media is not free either.
I also felt bad eating pretzels while watching this video. Thank you.
I think the same way. One of the major differences is directly related to the subject of punishment. If one just did what was predetermined, then punishing them is completely pointless (unless said punishment is meant to achieve something, which seems to rarely be the case). Instead, we would focus on rehabilitation and preventation of such things, as they couldn't be chalked up to "Well that person just is that way, so that is why they did it".
Absolutely. I sorta hate this video because it doesn't really provide any nuance to the answer of whether free will exists or not. Like, just bevause you in theory have the option to choose for yourself what you do, the situations or environment you're in will strongly shape the choices you make (ex: just because you technically had the option to choose not to steal food, if you're starving and out of money, there isn't really much of a choice.) I've seen a lot of people argue against free will (specifically determinists) with no real thought about what that actually means for society, and it's a bit frustrating to me. If you don't actually have any say in whether or not you commit a crime, shouldn't legal systems be completely overhauled? They argue that free will isn't real on a physics level, but then don't seem to have any practical advice as to how that should effect society. But maybe there are determinists arguing that and I just haven't seen them yet.
Tl;Dr: Even if free will is theoretically possible, doesn't mean you're physically able to choose because your ability to choose is determined by your physical circumstances. Also people arguing determinism should probably think more about how free will not being real should effect society, or at least argue it more often if they do think about it but just don't bring it up often.
Your comment is spot on. I really wish Kurzgesagt discussed the important societal consequences of free will not existing, instead of just remarking about how much of a "bummer" it is.
@@Checkerboard_Owltake a look at Sam Harris. The free will question and the consequences question are separate (ie just because you may or may not like the consequences doesn't have a bearing on if something is or is not true). Sam does explore both.
Society punishes crime, because over time we've learned (accurately or not,) that the fear of punishment results in less of those crimes occurring.
With a lack of free will, nothing changes. Society has still been taught that, you will be one of countless people to ponder whether it's the best way to prevent crime, and the future will happen as it happens.
Free will is the gift humankind has been given that allows each individual to freely choose their ideas and what they wish to believe or disbelieve. Our ability through the choices we make, to create new circumstances and environment, relationships, achievement or failure, prosperity or poverty.
There is no way that man may escape what he thinks, says or does [i.e., the fruits of his free will]-for he is born of the "Divine Creative Consciousness" power and is likewise creative in his imagination.
Are you NPC?
"No I'm not NPC"
*Process to walk into the wall*
😂😂😂
@UTTPNINTENDOWARRIORwhat the fuck kinda bot is that
Are you NPC?
"No I'm not NPC"
*Proceeds to watch a video about npcs.*
Can you hit though the wall? If not, you are at least not a Soulborne NPC.
Have you heard of the high elves?
This feels really fresh more philosophical videos pls
If I'm a npc the programmer was clearly not going to their weekly therapist
We've all just got to realise free will or not, we all still live are alive and have to genuinely not think about these time wasting issues
Lmao same
Or they wanted to do a little trolling
@@keidasI don't think its a waste of time to discuss ESPECIALLY since these ideas govern how are legal system works. But if people feel intense discomfort I wouldn't force them to discuss it as long as they aren't vindictively harming others.
Nah, you are a totally normal result of agile development.
Emergence is subjective to humanity.
Clicked on this to say that I work at a reception desk, and take my dog for a walk at pretty much the same time every day. I am almost as NPC as a human being can get 😂 all I do all day is assign annoying side quests for little to no payout to other people. Like get me your boss's schedule so I can book him in a meeting; retrieve these office supplies and bring them to me; repair this minor inconvenience of an issue in our office or on our computer. MY coworkers are like "how was your weekend, did you do anything fun?" and I'm like "nah I did nothing".
Immanuel Kant is proud and I am inspired.
Well at least other people do ask you about. Nobody asks me about mine, because I then speak about loops, conditions and compilations, and all they hear is "#$^&$ @^$*( @^&!$)".
Hello adventurer and welcome to the town of honeywood!
The way I would have an existencial crisis every day 💀
NPC's in games were modelled on the average person, so if it makes you feel better, you're one of us 😂
I think the real question is what does "free will" mean.
my mom quit smoking a year ago. it was really hard for her, because her brain is wired to crave nicotine. this was a choice she made. even if this choice was determined by the quarks that compose her brain, this is macroscopically, semantically, what we call a choice. I think determinism doesn't negate free will, I think it's just a way of seeing it
I've beaten addiction as well, but I'm not in any way proud of myself for that. To me it doesn't feel like a choice I made or a battle I won, it feels like an inevitable consequence of action/reaction. I'm happy about it, but don't ascribe it to my own perseverance. My brother doesn't understand me when I tell him this.
@@JorisKeijser OMG thank you! Yeah, it's everything that you lived up to this point, coupled with your genes, that both made you start and finish that addiction. You can be happy it's over, that's for sure! But you didn't choose your genes or the environment in which you were born and then evolved, so it doesn't mean anything to feel proud about it. I think just like you :)
We can think of two different types of free-will. One would be this impossible free-will that is like a magical soul taking over the physics of our brains. Whereas the other is closest to the common-sense definition as free-will being things we choose when not under coercion of some sort. With the "physics itself" of our biological/neurological machinery doing the choice not counting as coercion.
Good for your mother. I wish my father would stop. and that my aunt could have. PS, interesting sciencey thing I've heard, apparently the addiction to nicotine itself ends in a surprisingly short interval, matter of a couple of days or so. Then they argue there's an additional habit component that's not as directly linked to nicotine as once imagined. I don't know how accurate it is but if it's true it's interesting, and supposed to help quitting, with habit substitution/tweaking.
@@Xirnatts My thought is that while me as a person *is* determined entirely by outside factors like genetics and my environment, I am ultimately defined as the entity that exists as a result of these things, not these things themselves. If this entity decided and worked hard to quit smoking, even though this was an inevitable consequence of the events of the big bang, that entity still deserves praise. As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to qualifying for praise, it does not matter why someone is the way they are, just how difficult their task was for them.
I quit alcohol and cigarettes with meditation. People have no idea they have everything they will ever need within them.
As a project manager, I'm that annoying side quest giver NPC for sure. I'm the Preston Garvey of my teammates.
Please don't say that about yourself, I don't need to start hating a stranger.
You seem insufferable
@@kaymarx9677 Not hating strangers is something only a true Minuteman would do. But meanwhile, another settlement needs your help.
I'm a therapist. I help people create their own quest lines and I function as a save point because I record their progress.
@@kaymarx9677 I'll mark it on your map.
I accidentlly read" do you have free wifi"💀
I think it all comes down to the definition of freewill. The reason why there is a philosophical debate, is because it is a human made concept. We define it as the ability to make decisions without external influence or predeterminated course of action. Freewill per say isn't measurable in nature, can't be falsified and therefor it is impossible for us to prove either side.
In the end, the subject of freewill has a similar nature as religion, it depends on what you want to believe in.
It only has a religious nature if you want to believe it exists -- exactly like religious beliefs. If you accept neither (gods or free will) exist there's no problem to define.
I agree it comes down to the definition.
The free will most people believe is falsifiable and we can absolutely say, there's no way for that kind of free will to exist.
@@goaliedude32 It is falsifiable, but it is yet to actually be falsified. We'd probably need that omniscient supercomputer to be sure.
@@jesperjohansson6959 absolutely not. It has never been demonstrated to be true and it takes little to no time at all to discover that it's a nonsensical idea
@@goaliedude32so you're just an NPC? Can't relate. I can pull out the articles that say that it exists but there's no real proof if it exists or not
Technically, we're all "non-playable-characters" since we're on our own and no one controls us.
But technically we’re also all playable characters because we’re playing as ourselves
Most NPCs don't know that they're NPCs.
I don't find the NPC analogy 100% fitting. Being _Non-player_ kind of imply there is a player, and a game, and game maker. or at least some do.
maybe we are npc that operates within certain rules and deterministic laws, but our brains are a sort of a condensation step, the bottleneck of biological of complexity from emergence.
The brain gets so complex on it's own eventhogh constrained by deterministic rules, so it's in fact a layer, a kind universe within the universe, with it's own set of rule that the outside universe can't really predict, as the decision making process of the brain doesn't follow deterministic rules that apply to the outside universe.
the government controls us bro
Noone controls you, you sure about that?
The no-free-will argument actually makes sense, and it doesn't have to be an unhappy thought. (I find it funny that the no-free-will camp were drawn as as angry little structures. 😂) It's actually irrelevant to what one should do on a practical basis -- you *should* do what is best for you based on the the pros and cons, which includes how you feel about all the choices. Hard determinism actually helps me feel more empathy towards other people (because if I was born as them, had their genes, their social upbringing and everything else, then I would do exactly what they have done). It also emphasizes cause-and-effect: your actions influences your future. If you work hard and smart to build a better future for yourself, your future will be affected accordingly. If you sit in a ditch, then your immediate future is likely in that ditch. So what if it could be predicted (or not because of randomness)? You can still choose to indulge or relax or something more productive. It doesn't matter if some uber super computer could have predicted that. You do you.
:) you can't really "choose" to indulge in anything, you do or you don't, that's the idea. like you said, if you were someone else, you'd do it like they do it. noone can help to do what they do. however we are influenced by anything that our attentive system picks up on and decides to be important enough to consider. what a nice topic to get lost in. I can tell from your comment that you enjoy these thoughts and ideas as well! peace!
@@claasbehrens2554 You may wish to act on your desires, but you don't have any control of *_what_* you desire
6:46 yes you could, if you had a model complex enough- you literally said this at the start of the video.
If you could predict what happens to every single particle in the universe at every point in time, you could perfectly predict exactly how physics causes every human to act/every future event to unfold. That eliminates the possibility of free will existing as you will never/have never had the power to act/have acted differently than the way you will/did. The existence of emergent properties doesn‘t change that.
Free will is just a very powerful illusion
So why do you get angry when some body do you any wrong? They couldn't help it. Oh you where programmed to get angry.
Seriously I don't think we know nearly enough to say one way or the other.
They say that atomic decay is random. If every thing is pre determined that can't be true.
If everything was known 14 billion years ago where is all that knowledge stored? In my opinion it could at the most be possible to calculate what would happen and not actually known back then. To store any knowledge must take energy too and how was that knowledge developed?
I believe and hope for randomness. I believe in at least some free will. I do not see that every little piece of energy in the energy sea 14 billion years ago would by any way be able to be calculated to where it is today.
By the way what is illusion? That must be pre determined too if you are right.
Tik tak tik tak machine. Is that all we are?
I'm watching this video instead of studying because the laws of physics literally force me to
bruh these bots are getting out of hand
ngl bruh if there is no free will at this point physics got me completely cooked because there is no way with the amount of videos I've been watching instead of studying
UA-cam still can't find a way to deal with these bots?
@@tjsm4455 it can't deal with CP bots, but when I'm arguing about politics YT is deleting or hiding my comments.
@@tjsm4455I doubt they are actually trying. Seems the most they are willing to do is ban the accounts once mass reported. They appear to refuse to use and preventative measures.
The moral is : fuck around and find out
Nice one! :'D
But seriously though, I don't think we'll figure out the theory of Free Will any time soon...
everyone trying to make a funny comment i know it
If the universal design is for me to be a mischievous goblin, then I might not have free will, but I will at least have pleasure.
hell yeah! glitch out this stupid simulation. gonna jail break yah "REALITY"!
The only rational thing anyone can do.
Bro just dismantled my "water is wet" argument in like five seconds...
Yeah, pretty determinist IMHO. The nature decided that water, or any liquide, make you wet. Where the free will gonna be : "would I want to be wet ?" If you have the choice to not be, don't go inside the water. But if you're forced to go inside the by causality, your free will isn't there, it's determinst. For example, if someone ask for help because he will drown, you will have no choice to be wet to save him or her. Even if you're petrified by this situation, it has been determined by your mindset.
@@freestalkerdotfr6391 Just to probe this train of thought, is the implication that our values strip us of free will?
So, a socioopath, for example, would actually have more choice in this scenario, as their decision to save that person wouldn't be bound by moral values, but instead, by whether it personally benefits them enough to save them.
And I suppose the amount of choice also increases if it's a mass-murderer in the ocean, as you'd have to wrangle with your own internal values versus the overall good allowing nature to take its course would do.
Water itself isn't wet, it's water so it is never dry and cannot therefore be wetted. It can only make something else wet.
Different between one atom or more, its crazy
I don't get the being wet argument though... Being wet is just having H2O molecules in itself. What's so weird about it?
Brilliant! I favour the Emergent theory. My example: Knowing how a TV works, does mean you can understand all the programs it shows.
"Your honor, my client didn't shoot that man because his actions were already chosen at the big bang, is he is only a witness, since he can't control his actions"
Objection! This is irrelevant, please keep discussing about causes and remedies.
How about someone with an extensive brain tumor? Would they be responsible for their actions?
“Well then, it is predetermined that I will count your client guilty, I cannot stop myself from doing so.”
Agreed. He is a dangerous effect of the big bang and must be segregated from society to prevent more damage. This judgement is also an effect of the big bang.
We are not saying he deserves to be locked up, or that we should exact retribution. He is not evil. Simply that we want to lock him up to protect others until we can find a way to stop him from causing harm. This will also serve as a warning to others, and become part of their circumstances which will influence their decisions.
Law and order still works without free will. It is just a lot more compassionate as we see criminals as victims of circumstance and would try to help them by adjusting the circumstances.
Would you accept the defence that a doctor has found a brain tumour effecting the defendants decision making process. If the doctor says history shows this person was a peaceful, compassionate, helpful member of society before the got the tumour. I can remove the tumour and return them to their true self. Would you want to treat them as a patient or punish them as a criminal? Perhaps both? Why?
@@Draconicfish2679 best response
I'm so happy to see this channel cover topics in philosophy. This was very well done! Would love to see more philosophy content with your amazing animation style.
ah those amazon details
Philosopher here. This was complete garbage and also npc is about philosophical zombies which is about awareness.
@@kasperpiskorski6801 haha oops
There is no freewill, but there is discount will, 50% off
Everything tend to move toward the middle.
My farts are better than Kurzgesagt's farts
@@sniper_gg47 That's good, nobody deserves existential dread B.O.
Only a handful of people have had free will and they go onto to extraordinary things but most of us are only guided by our own constraints
A disturbing lack of birds in this video.
A more disturbing lack of insight and research.
@@antaguanaCheck the sources
@@antaguana There's literally annotations and sources in the description of every video, the bots have better bait than this.
@@thearkadianm While the sources seem legit, this doesn't mean there's a lack of bias and manipulation. And Even if they are, academia isn't necessarily telling the truth.
@@N12015 Implying either of two things. You only know the truth, or the truth cannot be known.
NPC, what are you talking about? I sell swords and can repair armor, which one is it? Oh, the road to Vizima is straight ahead. Have a nice day adventurer.
Potion seller I need your strongest potions!
@@therexbellator I am afraid my strongest potion will turn you racist.
Thank you, shopkeeper. May the Ligma be with you
Can I sell you this odd junk I found in someone's treasure chest and doesn't seem to have any use but to sell it?
but can you craft grandmaster gear
“The person you’re destined to be is the person you choose to be.”
- Some guy probably
"Pikachu I choose you"
- My grandma's ashes ketchup or whatever
I think there isn't free will, but we should act like there is because it's simpler and for most/all practical purposes it does
“When you decided to watch this video instead of doing something useful"
bro is living in my walls. i have 40 assignments to do that are due in 2 days 💀
Damn
So did you finish them?
@@takloy9664 eventually lol
@@㘭 in time? 💀
@@amvrinn ye
"H2O molecules are not wet"
The amount of conflict I sense is about to happen
It's probably not dry
@@besmart2350 I agree with the first camp more, but also why in the observable universe would you use that example?
@@besmart2350 my take is that we just don't know nearly enough to presume that pure reductionism is an appropriate approach to the universe. What is definitely true though is that the belief in free will is part of the antidote to feeling like a worthless npc
@@besmart2350At the end of the day it's an ontological problem, the same kind of problem statisticians face when considering a coin a random process.
yay no bots
9:46 BMO!!! My life has now been fullfilled.
We live in a world of constraints: financial, physical, mental / psychological, geographical, etc, and our ability to choose is affected accordingly. Why am I not a CEO? Why am I not my ideal weight? Conversely, why am I richer than my wife's uncle, who is toiling in the hot sun, here in rural Thailand? Why doesn't he speak English? Why does he drink too much and shout at his son sometimes?
We all do the best we can.