As far as I understand things, 2 isn't true. We feel ourselves making decisions, but that is how the process feels from the inside. From the outside, it's all done by all those atoms and particles inside our skulls, bouncing off each other in strict accordance with the laws of nature like so many tiny billiard balls, and so everything we do and think is the result of necessity. All the ambivalence we feel – should I choose lemon or mango ice cream? – also consists of patterns in the bouncing of the balls, all on their paths which have been determined by the 'laws' of nature since the Big Bang. Even though I feel myself making a decision – lemon ice cream! –, what I will decide has been determined by all the ball-bouncing that has been going on in the universe before the moment I decide. I could not possibly choose anything else.
How would you characterize your thoughts about free will then? Is it a mere illusion, or is there something genuine in it?
ErinFlight said:
Thinking about it, I realized that this might be a common concern. There are probably plenty of people who've looked at various more-or-less technical or jargony Less Wrong posts, tried understanding them, and then given up (without posting a comment explaining their confusion).
So I figured that it might be good to have a thread where you can ask for explanations for any Less Wrong post that you didn't understand and would like to, but don't want to directly comment on for any reason (e.g. because you're feeling embarassed, because the post is too old to attract much traffic, etc.). In the spirit of various Stupid Questions threads, you're explicitly encouraged to ask even for the kinds of explanations that you feel you "should" get even yourself, or where you feel like you could get it if you just put in the effort (but then never did).
You can ask to have some specific confusing term or analogy explained, or to get the main content of a post briefly summarized in plain English and without jargon, or anything else. (Of course, there are some posts that simply cannot be explained in non-technical terms, such as the ones in the Quantum Mechanics sequence.) And of course, you're encouraged to provide explanations to others!