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First published: July 21, 2023
Last revised: November 17, 2024

I think that consciousness has no meaning without free will. At the same time, free will makes no sense to me. Yes, I realize I'm a walking contradiction.

Free will is the fantasy that our thoughts have causal power on our actions and that we can change the course of events merely by thinking. I don't think we have free will because it doesn't make any sense: both our actions and our thoughts are caused by processes in the brain, and surely they are correlated with each other (after all we are convinced we exert causal power on our future), but physically speaking there is only "one future" that unfolds and we are just spectators.

Biologically, it would seem illogical to waste resources on running the mind's eye only to have it passively spectate an everchanging present. So why would evolution select brains with consciousness rather than zombie brains? What is the evolutionary pressure? Why give us an illusion of control rather than no illusion at all? Note that answers involving the brain simulating its environment don't say anything about consciousness: they only speak to brain function, which arguably can take place without a consciousness.