Not really though. There’s layers to things. Smaller levels don’t have much impact on higher levels individually; they form layers, which exhibit their own behaviors that can’t be predicted by the lower levels. That’s the whole emergent properties of a system thing.
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Here’s an example of downward causation by George Ellis – higher levels can’t be predicted by the lower levels; electrons don’t know they’re a part of a living organism nor do they have to nor does it matter; there’s so many layers inbetween, there’s no individual direct impact.
But the organism as a whole can exhibit influence upon what the electrons do. Yes the organism need the electrons but the organism has more power over the electrons than the electrons have over the organism because it’s easier for the organism to effect change upon billions of electrons than it is for billions of electrons to collectively make change in the larger organism.
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Of course there’s priors. We wouldn’t be alive without the priors. But once it’s all in place, we’re ready to go.
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For example, we’re alive. A whole hell of a lot of complexity is needed for us to be alive.
within all that complexity, all of these systems within systems, wheels within wheels, all interacting with each other upon this planet in this solar system etc etc… there’s gears that spin freely that can manipulate other gears that spin freely that EVENTUALLY hook into the greater system with less and less control as things move outside of our range of influence, but we DO have a range of freedom.
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Except we’re not billiard balls on tables. We’re continually constructed and reconstructed.
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Was being in a vacuum free of energy a perquisite ?
There’s more layers to us than a pool table subjected to gravity with friction that balls roll upon.
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We exist within a very complicated system of pool tables and gravities ,including our free will.
The scope of our free will isn’t multiverse sized. It’s scoped to our range
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But we can’t do that. We’re part of the same system.
Taking a god’s eye POV that we can’t control anything is equally absurd. Within these systems we are in, within the ranges we have access to, we have free will.
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These systems are so complex, that we have a concept of NOISE in information theory.
What is NOISE?
causes and effects from other things somewhere else from some other time that take up space and time and effect things anywhere.
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noise is the lubricant that allows free will to exist.
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not being specific. just thinking generally how emergent properties of a system usually involve some kind of “lubricant” layer of a sort that affords different properties of the upper level than the lower levels could do, giving them separation from the lower levels that it comes from.
and free will is certainly a system within many systems but it is “free spinning” within all of it to some degree as it’s not all directly tied to anything in the outside environment or internal environment in particular but in a complicated dance of sorts. It’s leaky and messy and it works… so yeah, I guess neuronal noise is probably it, although I’m thinking the noisiness of existence in general, the unpredictability of most things at scale.
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