Observation is freewill in action?
There is a claim that freewill is an illusion and that everything about our lives is determined, that we are living in a clockwork universe, that we have no agency in our lives and that nothing we do matters other than turning the clock as we were always suppose to and had no choice in doing so. It seems like the worse kind of invisible cage to be trapped in to me and I understand why so many people find this idea depressing because if nothing we do matters what is the point of playing a game where the result is already known. It also seems to go against everything we experience as human beings, we face choices all the time and we suffer as a result in making them, to say that this is pointless and that you were always going to make the same choice in the same way feels like a cruel joke. However there is hope as for this claim to be true it has to answer the question why does my decisions feel different when I observe what is happening rather than react to events.
This might feel like a minor point, and the determinists would say that that every decision you make is based on pre-existing condition, and the only reason you were observing was because of who you were before that moment, which is the very essence of the determinist argument that given a set of initial conditions there is only one outcome. It says that your intelligence, looks, social conditions, wealth, attitudes are the results of things that happened before you were even born, it depends upon the actions of your parents, to which most parents would laugh. Though even if it was true and I agree that most of our opportunities are luck, that we deserve zero credit for our genetic lottery, there is still a range of actions available to you and that is where you get to exercise freewill, there will be better options and worse one in any given situation, and whilst it could be true that there is only one option that you were ever realistically going to take, even the bad ones, there is a both randomness and freewill in how much you observe rather than react which can change marginal decisions (and has for me).
Determinism will always say that the initial conditions made everything inevitable, which places a lot of importance on the initial conditions that determine everything that follows, and if you know anything about chaos theory you will know that the initial conditions are incredibly sensitive, tiny changes in these conditions can have huge changes in later outcome, and when I say small, I mean the kind of small that even scientist call rounding errors. It is such a fundamental problem that we can not even predict the motion of three body in space, never mind the actions of seven billion people but just three rocks orbiting around each other is enough to make mathematician have to approximate (guessing for smart people). Now I willing to take on faith that we might not be smart enough to do the maths, but it seems strange that the initial conditions of the big bang set in motion a clock work machine that had no randomness in it and yet randomness seems to be such an important part of the way the universe works, though it can produce predictability, for example the laws of pressure emerge from underlying randomness, but it is baked in to the way the world works.
However we will accept the argument for the moment that there was only one initial condition and everything since was dependant upon that first big bang, and that chaos does not emerge from periods of order and vice-versa, what we will focus on is whether you can change the initial conditions in any way that is significant and remember if there is any change in initial conditions it can change the outcomes of chaos. The smallest change that is possible is at the quantum level, at the level of electrons and at this level we are dealing with probabilities, what is interesting for us is that the act of observing an electron changes it's behaviour (see the two slot experiment on YouTube for proof of this), it changes the initial condition of the whole universe (and every moment is a new initial starting point) and for determinism any change in the initial conditions undoes the clockworks of predictability.
Whether you decide to observe or not seems to me the fundamental unit of freewill, it is where there is always a choice, you can argue that deciding to observe is already determined, though if you have sat down to meditate and observe yourself you will know that it is hard, it is making the choice to start again twenty times a minutes (at least) , you have to make the free choice to do it repeatedly (and there is randomness in there), the idea that how well you meditate is pre-determined is foolish, practise helps but each time you take a breath you have to use your freewill to observe again. Remember it only takes a tiny change in the initial conditions to change the world, not in a predictably way, randomness it always there, freewill and randomness is not incompatible with each other, and when you continuous use freewill to start again the randomness drops away.
What is important is that if freewill or randomness is found in any part of the world it brings down determinism, it has to be prefect whereas freewill can be imperfect, it can be found hidden down in the dark corners of the world, in private moments, all it has to do is effect the initial conditions and everything that is determined from those conditions changes. Determinism is perfect only when you look backwards, if you know where you are, you can know where you came from, but in terms of predicting the future it is only as good as the initial conditions are unalterable. It is the act of observation that can change those conditions, which is shown in the two slot experiment and in the act of meditations, however observation can affect our decision in real life, and this is not scientist evidence, but I have experienced the difference that observation has in my life, it feels different and better, I have made better choices by using my freewill to observe rather than just reacting, and every time I do so, I believe that I have changed the initial conditions that set up my life from that point onwards, and if life is a set of initial conditions that are dependant on each other over time, why not use your freewill in the only way that we know changes them for the better by observing what is happening.
It probably more accurate to say that there is a spectrum of freewill and determinism, somethings being very determined like your height and meditate being the result of the repeated use of freewill. There is a nonsense in being too proud of your success or achievements as the range of the possible outcomes where they are all good, the worst outcome for a technology billionaire would have been a successful engineer, which is still a good life compare to an Indian farmer with no education or skills. We should have empathy for those who did not hit the genetic jackpots of beauty, intelligence, strength, inherited money or geography, that was luck, which should change how we treat other people if we are aware of how much luck goes into the outcomes that carry so much judgement with others. The idea of the meritocracy that is based on intelligence, suddenly looks just as brutal as a society based on who is the stronger, or a future one based on emotional intelligence, when these characteristic are based on luck, obviously we want the most productive people to have the most resources to do the most amount of good in the world, but that should be tempered with kindness to those who had bad luck (and universal basic income helps in being compassionate to those people and making sure that they have some resources).
However there are areas where we do have the freewill to pay attention, by bring our awareness into the present moment and that can improve the quality of our lives, that we do have agency, we can learn, engage with new ideas and make our lives better. In fact the pursuit of knowledge, the ideas that we encounter do have a positive effect on our lives, knowing how to be a stoic helps everyone who understands the idea and practise them, that is an act of freewill and available to everyone because they are simple universal ideas (often taught through stories) that change the experience and our quality of life even in the worst of circumstances. What freewill and agency gives us is the motivation and hope that we can improve our lives, that our actions do matter, that we can do better and that is the heart of being a human, we are drive to grow as beings of consciousness and it is in our control by our freely given practise of observation.
