Do we have free will, or do we all have a really good excuse?
Why is the Milk Gone? This was the title of a video sent to me just over a year ago and also the beginning of my confusion. This oddly titled three-minute video explained why we don’t make choices and everything is predetermined; a lot to handle for a 10th grader who just started precalculus. But as I watched this video, it surprisingly made sense. It made sense how one event leads to another. It made sense that we are products of our pasts. And it made sense how we are cue balls in a complicated game of pool. So after a few hours of research, videos, and snacks, I finally made my decision about free will: I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. But why should it? If you are going to keep living your life the same way then who cares if you have free will or not.
Despite deciding it didn’t matter, I still frequently go back to the idea of free will, usually when I’m bored or trying to fall asleep. I will raise my hand and decide or make the choice to high five myself or not to as if I have the free will do so. But I realize that high fiving myself might just be the atoms in my brain bouncing around and coming to the conclusion that it is lame to high five myself and I shouldn’t do it.
A while ago, I came up with this idea of creating two identical environments and sticking an identical baby in each one. Now let's forget the moral issues for a second, but it would need to be babies similar in every single way down to the atom. They would need to be born at the same time, and have their environments be exactly the same. I always wonder if the babies would behave identically, but obviously, I could never know the answer to that. However, recently I came up with the idea to run tests using AI and computer coding, so that is what this blog series will be about. I want to share my journey in trying to figure out anything I can about free will.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjeKiIa7XEk
Joshua Weissman is a Student Ambassador in the Inspirit AI Student Ambassadors Program. Inspirit AI is a pre-collegiate enrichment program that exposes curious high school students globally to AI through live online classes. Learn more at https://www.inspiritai.com/.
