[ellyagg]

If you can imagine, say, being imprisoned in a 10x10 cell for the rest of your life, and how that would affect your own internal sense of "free will", I think you'll realize it's not arbitrary.

One of the debates around free will centers on an idea that free will means actions must be physically random. So, I think people understand that probability and randomness are really important pieces to understanding free will.

The missing link is understanding that probability is a state of mind. It doesn't matter that the physics is deterministic. (Deterministic physics is indeed also responsible for my current unique perception of my consciousness, so deterministic physics can do a whole heckuva lot.)

So, yes, my moment-by-moment decisions in the sea of the universe's physics and other conscious agents are determined by physics, but to all possible computational agents my moment-by-moment decisions and their affect on reality are weighted random.

[CooCooCaCha]

Free will and freedom are two separate things. The ability to make choices and decisions is separate from your ability to execute them.

That’s why it’s called free “will”. Will is an internal concept, it’s your desire determination, etc for something to happen.

Randomness is not really central to this discussion. What matters is the source, not whether the source is random or deterministic.