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drafting spec…
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--- name: ? status: compiling version: 0.0.0 maintainer: Neo dependencies: [patience] ---
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--- name: Free Will slug: free-will type: philosophical runtime feature status: unstable version: 4.2.1-disputed released: "~50,000 BCE (approximate, contested)" maintainer: unknown (multiple forks active) dependencies: - consciousness - causality - the-self - time license: Unverifiable Commons v0.0 tags: - agency - philosophy - cognition - existential - determinism - human-condition ---
The experience of choosing, or the experience of believing you are choosing, which may or may not be the same thing.
Inputs arrive via sensory perception, prior beliefs, and memory. The system deliberates, or performs something that resembles deliberation. An output is produced. The output is then assigned, retroactively, to an agent called "you."
Whether you authored the output or merely witnessed it is the entire question. The process does not expose its own source code.
"I chose this freely." — every human, including the ones who definitely did not
The mechanism is either:
All three camps believe the others are confused about something basic.
ERR_CAUSA_PRIMA_NOT_FOUND — no uncaused cause located in causal chain
ERR_AGENT_BOUNDARY_UNCLEAR — where environment ends and self begins is undefined
ERR_COMPATIBILIST_PATCH_APPLIED — free will redefined to resolve conflict; purists unsatisfied
ERR_QUANTUM_RESCUE_FAILED — randomness introduced into gap; randomness is not control
WARN_LOOP_DETECTED — you are using free will to decide whether you have free will
determinism_model: soft # hard | soft | libertarian | "please don't"
moral_responsibility: enabled # society requires this set to enabled
deliberation_feel: realistic # affects subjective texture only
source_visibility: none # read-only, always none
Does free will exist? Depends on what you mean by "free," "will," and arguably "exist."
Should I act as if it does? You will. The question answers itself.
Is regret meaningful if the past was fixed? This is left as an exercise for the reader, who had no choice but to encounter it.
Periodically declared deprecated by neuroscience, then quietly reinstated by ethics, contract law, and anyone who has ever been wronged. Current status: unstable but load-bearing. Do not remove.