Thread: Free Will an Illusion?

yep, because the guy could be completely emo and just say "pull the trigger" or if the guys family is in danger he could either let the man kill him because he is scared or try to save his family...there are a lot of variables for a simplistic analogy I guess.

Originally Posted by TimeStopper

Determinism seems strange since it feels like we are all in control. I so came up with this hypothetical situation.

Suppose there was a man called Dave, who had a chip installed in his brain when he was still in his mother's womb. This chip records all of his experiences from life to death. Every single sense, thought, and memory Dave has is recorded with the exact time it was recorded.

After his death, the chip is put into a pod that can play the memories. You agree to get into the pod with all of your own memories removed. The pod isolates you from the outside world, creating a virtual reality based on the chip's data. As long as you're in the pod, you're guaranteed to stay alive. While you're in this pod you would feel like you're Dave, you wouldn't know that you're actually in a simulated reality. Since your experience would be identical to that of Dave, you would effectively become Dave.

Since all of the experiences were recorded, the simulated reality is definitely a deterministic world. However you feel like you're Dave making decisions in his life, showing the illusion of free will.

So what do you think?

Well if you did that, yea you would effectively become Dave. What are you trying to say?