Free will exists

That the choice we make in our lives at a given moment is a result of a complex computation that happens in our grey matter which is an outcome of a neural network makes us feel that everything that happens in us has nothing to do with us.

Our neural pathways keep growing as we age from childhood into adulthood. This is nothing but our experiences stored in memory and the biases we have acquired preferring one over other.

When you are offered Coffee or Tea, if you have a very strong preference for Coffee, then your brain automatically makes you tell coffee. This means though you think you chose Coffee out of the choices offered to you, your brain had computed the choice much in advance and that’s what was your choice. When I say brain, I mean the neural network and when I say a neural network, I mean your memorized experiences along with your biases.

You may sometimes switch and ask for Tea. This can happen when you have had enough Coffee and your interest in Coffee has dwindled due to physiological reasons. Say the Coffee you had of late was not tasting good for you. So the preference for Coffee slowly goes down and is replaced by Tea. All this again can be said to be an automatic happening without Your involvement.

In all the above, I have been talking about your brain computing an outcome and You the person automatically being part of such a decision. Even though your brain is part of you, I have shown them separately. Because what makes you as a person inside you is the self-awareness which pervades all through your being. You are not your brain alone. You feel you exist within you.

To make it sound more tangible, we can call it the ‘Attention’. Your ‘Attention’ at any moment defines your awareness or you as a conscious being. It is the ‘Attention’ that brings you to the Present moment. Without it, you may be physically there, but may not be aware of what is going on. Most of us, most of the times are lost in thoughts and our attention need to be brought back to the present moment on matters that concern us.

Now that I have clarified two things. One being the ‘memory’ of your experiences that makes automatic decisions giving an illusion that You are taking that decision. The other being the feeling of Your existence by being ‘attentive’ and not lost in thoughts.

The ‘there is no free will’ camp says that because within you everything what you do is predetermined or your choices are automatically computed from priors, You the person has no role to play in the choices you make.

While this appears to be true, I would like to say that the Person or the feeling of a being within you is a different entity than the neural network part that decides based on priors. Often you do not pay Attention or you are not fully aware of your present moment. This makes you in a sort of auto-pilot mode or semi-conscious mode where you decide things based on your past experiences by the automatic computation of the neural network or the experiential memory part of you.

However, there are states where you are with complete attention to the present moment, unbiased by your past memory, unclouded by your experiences, fresh as a baby making you a fully conscious being without the baggage of the past. Whatever choices you make in this state are not bound by your habitual memory or your past experiences.

This state is where ‘Free Will’ exists.