Free will-y.

This does not refer to the titular whale in that crappy kid’s movie. And it doesn’t refer to that either. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Nope, it refers to this article.

There are several problems with the premise. But all I will say is this (if the following is incoherent, blame infinity):

Reading between the lines in this case as in many others, the way authors of such articles seem to conceptualize the cause-and-effect aspect of determinism is rather provincial. They - and many commenters - seem to be under the impression that we could in some way come close to understanding enough of the causes of a given effect (or in the context of this article, choice) to understand the extent to which we truly have a non-contingent choice about what to do next. This is ridiculous. It’s not that simple. There is not a single cause for a given effect. There are not hundreds of causes for every given effect. There are not thousands or millions... there are, logically speaking, an infinite number of causes for every effect. An infinite number of reasons to be faced with and then make a given choice. Free will - like self - is process, not event. In other words, free will is not the crux of the matter. In the infinitely complex soup that is cause and effect we have what amounts to free will. So... if we can never hope to quantify what is controlling our processes, how can anyone credibly say that we functionally lack free will? You can’t because of the infinite regress. Technically we do not have free will, but we have de facto free will because of that infinite dance that is cause and effect.

Appendix 1 - Think about what goes into a single decision. I have a choice between two different pints of draught beer that someone has thoughtfully placed in front of me in order that I decide which one I like better. Just to decide which one to smell first, there are an infinite number of causes that govern the process, but we’re not interested in that particular patch of infinity. But once the beer is flowing over my tongue, the decision about whether or not I like it begins. Because of set neural pathways that are activated by the receptors in my tongue and olfactory nerves, I get instant feedback, as the brain, programmed by the effects of previous causes to be predisposed to like red beer (with the exception of Killian’s, which is crap) I decide I like that one. Think of all the effects - every neuron, every neuronal pathway... each tiny step in the process subject to the same infinite soup of cause-and-effect as every other. And then there’s the outside effects. Peer pressure, sounds, other smells, memories, and moifnt df sfglnsl...

Oops. Infinity broke my brain.

So. Free will: technically hogwash. Functionally, I choose to go to bed without watching the Olympics.