Personal Philosphy on Free Will

Scott Adams has a lot to say about free will on the Dilber Blog. I was amazed by the response he received, as I figured this debate was put to rest centuries ago. Sure enough, now that my ears were focused on this, I heard the topic almost everywhere. Here is my personal take on free will, choices, responsibility, and destiny.

First, I agree with Scott Adams, I don't believe in free will. I believe your will is as set as your opinion of Brussels sprouts.

Choices are a bit tricky, as even though you dislike sprouts, you'll still eat them if your parents force you too. This could be concluded as a combination of several fixed wills, and your decision can be calculated from them. I see decisions as a pinball that is bounced around by random wills and cannot be exactly calculated.

I do think that a person is ultimately responsible for their decisions. If they make poor decisions, then it is up to them to rearrange the effect of wills in their pinball machine.

Lastly, I don't believe we have a destiny of any type. It may be possible one day to predict what a person may do in the next 10 seconds, but I don't believe destiny can determine the shape of an evolving pinball game 10 years from now. No one is destined to succeed or fail, we just keep playing and rework the mental game.