Is there Free Will?

In this age of information, we are constantly being bombarded with data that affect our perception. Often times, the media persistently project a single story that gets imprinted in our brains, leading to prejudice. A country like India can be thought of as very unsafe for women. US could be thought of as a precarious place where you might get shot down the moment you land. People from Nigeria might be considered as tribal, even though Nigeria has perfectly modern cities. Once we are anchored to a particular way of thinking, it becomes very difficult to get rid of the prejudices. We often fail to comprehend that our opinion might be just one of the thousand possible stories that we have never heard. The single stories themselves may not be wrong. But, it is just a one-sided story. Truth is multi-faceted. Is our future multi-faceted too? Or is it that we do not have any free will?

"The problem of free will is not about the lack of choice or determinism, but about the way we choose."

Scott Adam’s 2004 Dilbert cartoon aptly says, ‘Free will is an illusion. People always choose the perceived path of greatest pleasure.’ Do we have free will? One would have thought that science has already solved this problem. Quite surprisingly, it hasn’t. It has only changed the way we look at the question. No more do we think that we are at the mercy of some higher powers. The problem of free will is not about the lack of choice or determinism, but about the way we choose. We may like to think that we are in control of our life, at least till we get married! Unfortunately, most of the things that happen to us are outside our control. I did not choose when, where and to whom I was born. I did not select my genes. And in all likelihood, I will have no free will about my death. My looks, my gender, my religion and nationality were predetermined. However, all these factors had a strong influence in determining who I am today. My genetics determines my nature, and my family determines my nurture. This means that we can never have complete freedom of choice. Random events along with our nature and nurture limit the choices we have. Having said that, there are a lot of things that are within our sphere of influence, like the way I want to colour my hair, the profession I want to be in, choosing my partner or when to have a baby. Even the choices that are in our control are influenced by external factors, especially our family. Rich people will have a different set of options than poor people for the same problem. Often our parents and teachers influence our career and thus the profession we choose. Choosing your partner is not just a one-sided decision; the other person needs to agree as well. When to have a baby, and sometimes even what colour you want your hair to be, is often a decision that you make along with your partner. How much of free will does that leave us with?

"We are a very negligible part of the entire universe. If the laws of physics guide everything in the universe, including the birth of the galaxy and origin of life, then why would our thoughts, or we for that matter, be any different?"

Let us ignore all the external factors for the time being and say that only you decide what to choose. When I started having thyroid problems, I noticed that I lost my temper very easily. I became a different person. It made me realize that a lot of what we are depends on the biochemical that flow in our body. These, in turn, depend on our brain. This is well documented in the case of Phineas P. Gage. In 1848, Gage suffered a major accident and lost a part of his brain. The loss of that particular part of the brain, prefrontal lobe to be exact, turned a cheerful well- mannered gentleman into a self-destructive habitual liar. Similar cases have been observed with other individuals with damaged prefrontal lobe. The prefrontal lobe, we now know, controls our emotions. Recent studies in neuroscience indicate that our thoughts could well be a product of biochemical algorithms written in our brain.

"We often fail to comprehend that our opinion might be just one of the thousand possible stories that we have never heard."

How we behave and react to situations depend more on the structure of our brain rather than the situation itself. Take for example the feelings of fear, anger, lust and love. They are the same all around the globe because they stem from the genetic make-up of our species and those feelings results from secretion of same biochemicals. When we are threatened, our brain releases adrenalin and cortisol that create the feeling of fear. Lust is governed by dopamine while the feeling of love by oxytocin. These chemicals are not any different for an African or a Chinese or a European. These chemicals can even be released artificially by intake of drugs or stimulating the right part of the brain through electrodes. We will have the feeling, corresponding to the part that is triggered, without any reason for feeling the same. What if the choice you are about to make is guided by your brain’s chemistry, determined by your genes and memories that you have no control over, following all the rules of physics that are fixed? We are a very negligible part of the entire universe. If the laws of physics guide everything in the universe, including the birth of the galaxy and origin of life, then why would our thoughts, or we for that matter, be any different?

This begs the question, where is free will? An interesting experiment was done almost 35 years ago by Dr. Benjamin Libet. Libet’s Experiment demonstrated that the unconscious response precedes, and potentially cause conscious or volitional decisions 300 milliseconds before you actually take that decision! If our unconscious mind is deciding for us, then it puts some serious doubts on our free will. Are we mistaking randomness for free will? The experiment received widespread fame and critics. May be our conscious mind has a veto power. May be, the way the experiment was conducted had flaws. Even then, we cannot disagree about the fact that absolute free will is a myth.


A 40-year-old man became addicted to child pornography after he developed tumour in the or bitofrontal cortex. Once the tumour was removed, his addiction vanished. Similarly, Charles Whitman, a 25-year-old loving husband suddenly turned into a mass murderer. The cause was a large tumour that pressed down his amygdala, a part of the brain that controls emotion. This brings us to the dilemma of justice. Who do we blame in such situation, the person or the tumour? Every decision we take is in some way affected by our genes, the way we were brought up, and any changes or damages that may happen to our brain. Some might argue that it is the non-conscious process in the brain that drives all our actions. While we can never be completely free, I would like to believe that we are not completely helpless about deciding our future. Or, at least my brain would want me to believe that. While the biochemical inside our body affect our behaviour, our behaviour in turn can affect the chemicals. With help of the right lifestyle, we can change the way we behave. With the help of medical treatments we can cure thyroid problems or tumours. I sincerely hope that it is not the apparent chaos which gives us the illusion of free will.

"We can go to the extent of saying that our perception is more of a hallucination than reality."

The way we make sense of the world depends on the way our brain receives information coming through the sense organs and make stories. In truth, we cannot sense anything directly. All our perceptions are indirect, with the help of proxies. We can go to the extent of saying that our perception is more of a hallucination than reality. One might say that our sense organs do a pretty good job of replicating the reality in our minds. That is why my interpretation of the world broadly matches yours. The Taj Mahal is the same for all the people who have seen it. Its beauty might be just in our brain, but the physical reality of the Taj Mahal has to exist. There must be a fundamental reality that is beyond the boundaries of our mind. What if we all are biased in the same way? We have evolved together and almost have the same genes. Since our brain is similar, our understanding has to be similar. 

Then there are a lot of things that we assume should match, actually does not. Different people interpret the same thing in different ways. Some may observe details, while others see the big picture. Some people have brains focused on facts, while others may be more imaginative. There is no right or wrong way to make sense of the universe. 

Even fundamental things like time and space are more mysterious than we think. Experiments in quantum physics are destroying the very fabric of our known comfortable world. And, it is not just at the micro scale. New experiments are replicating the weirdness of quantum world in macro scale. All possible realities might exist, and we just happen to remember one at a time. May be in one of the universes it is Schrödinger who is in the box and is both dead and alive till Dr. Cat opens it. The single universe of Classical Physics might be the simplified story that our brain writes. Does the Heisenberg uncertainty give us free will? It is more of a hope. The arrow of time works both ways in physics. If all possibilities exists and at all times....then each and every possibility is already fixed.

"All possible realities might exist, and we just happen to remember one at a time."

From the Book  5 Questions of the Inquisitive Apes

Written by Subhrashis Adhikari

"Engaging and entertaining, this page-turner is remarkable in its narration and will give you a new perspective on various aspects of life. Wellresearched and heartfelt, the encouraging tone throughout the book tries to motivate towards a happier life." - Times of India

Link:

https://www.amazon.in/Questions-Inquisitive-Ape-Subhrashis-Adhikari/dp/9387022552/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=subhrashis&qid=1570535712&sr=8-1