Free Will, Determinism and Consciousness - Lent 2022: Day 20

Are we not automata, bumbling and stumbling through this random, accidental, thing called life? Were not our cards laid out for us at birth, our genes and environment shaping our destiny, which has been predetermined for us to the last detail until we die? The interconnected latticework of events that surrounds us bumps and grinds continuously, like smoke particles demonstrating Brownian motion. Cause and effect, causing effects that can be traced back - and tracked forward. In other words, is the future open? Have we any say in it? 

I tend, however, to believe that we have more free will than causal determinists would have us enjoy. The tricks lies not in what our ego - nested in our biology - tends to make us do, but firstly in the random world of quantum mechanics, and secondly in the power within our conscious mind.

Einstein did not like the non-deterministic nature of quantum mechanics - probabilities rather than certainties. Would the atom decay or not? If so, when? This is not Newton's world of celestial spheres orbiting the Sun with perfectly calculable precision. Within each atom, electrons orbit the nucleus in different states; the 'quantum jump' from one particle state to another appears not to be caused by anything - it just happens - or doesn't happen. "God does not play dice", said Einstein famously. It seems that God does just that. The collapse of the wave function in quantum mechanics has been linked to the presence of a conscious observer. What if the presence of the conscious observer collapses the wave function? Can you will Schrodinger's cat to live?

In practical terms, however, in our observable world, the inner workings of atoms seem to make no difference to our daily lives. Cheese or hummus with my breakfast toast? Set off on my walk towards the forest or towards the railway line? Write this blog post now or put it off till later? 

The notion of having a free will only works if there is a notion of a 'will' - an agency, personally determining the course of one's path. Having structure to one's life, having a purpose. If you live solely for materialist pleasures, you are more likely to be driven down paths that have been predetermined for you in advance. By whom? Or is it just random causality? 

Automatic vs. conscious movement - we all know that phenomenon when you're driving along a well-known stretch of road and you realise you've no memory of what has passed you by over the past ten miles or so.

"We know where we're going/We know where we're from", sang Bob Marley. A useful tenet to go by. Over the past ten years or so, less and less has been passing me by unnoticed. A life goal has been coming into ever-sharper focus - a desire for understanding the spiritual self within the metaphysical universe, and at the heart of that is my consciousness. This is where will resides. And if you link consciousness and quantum mechanics - which one day science might do - then it all clicks into place.

The more you observe consciously, the more you take in, the more you come to understand, the more open your future - in metaphysical terms, at least.

And so, the more you exercise your will, the freer it becomes.

This time last year:
Connecting with the Metaphysical

This time two years ago:
Chance, complacency, gratitude

This time eight years ago:
The clash of narratives

This time nine years ago:
The Church and democracy

This time ten years ago:
Prime lens or zoom?

This time 11 years ago:
Warsaw's failed bid as City of Culture, 2016

This time 12 years ago:
Stalinist downtown at dusk

This time 13 years ago:
The End of an Age of Excess?

This time 14 years ago:
Snowy Easter in England