Jens Berges' blog part 7

Where is free will?

So I have a terminal lung disease.

If I have bad luck, I will suffocate stressfully in the near future.

I am 72 years old. I had my time, a good time in Southeast Asia, where I settled 40 years ago.

As of the time of this writing, I feel quite ok, not coughing, and no pain. But my illness will catch up with me, and I do not have much time left.

I could commit suicide at this time, in a painless manner, to preempt suffering down the road. It would make sense.

If only I would have the free will to make such a decision. But I, and other people, do not possess this thing called "free will".

This does not mean that we could not make our own decision (to commit suicide, for example).

We usually do make our own decisions, even though sometimes, outside puppet masters pull the strings.

That we usually make our own decisions, however, does not mean that they would be an act of free will. Rather, they are controlled by our brains, and the outcome is determined.

Humans apply a lot of sophisticated brain power to make decisions.

We pursue education, read books, acquire knowledge, all for the purpose of being better equipped to make decisions.

When we are children, our parents usually decide for us. When we are grown up, we decide ourselves.

And for all of this, we don't apply, and do not need, "free will".

Neuroscientists can study goal-oriented behavior, and can identify brain areas, and brain processes, electrical and chemical, that lead to certain decisions.

If one studies brain-derived behavior in animals, the decision-making parameters are termed "instinct", or they may be classified as "learned behavior".

Caenorhabditis elegans is a well-studied, 1-millimeter-long worm that lives in soil. It is an accumulation of 959 cells, of which 302 cells are the nervous system.

And this minimalistic nervous system can do it all: it controls metabolism and movement, it has sensory facilities, it can learn, and it generates motivation to eat and mate.

Even though this worm has autonomous goal-directed behavior, nobody would ascribe "free will" to it. The worm just has instincts. And they do the job.

Let's climb the evolutionary ladder. Do insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, rabbits, elephants, dogs, or chimpanzees have "free will". Or do they all just have instincts?

One can compare the anatomy of nervous systems up and down the evolutionary ladder. There is a clear increase in complexity. Nevertheless, the major components, whether minimalistic or complex, can be clearly defined, and functions identified.

Instincts are generated in these nervous systems, from Caenorhabditis elegans to the primates, of which humans are the most advanced species.

"Free will" is just a mental image, generated by human self-observation after a decision has already been implemented by the brain, which does an amount of evaluations, calculations, and computations that is far too huge for any awareness in human self-observation.

Is the brain that controls me and my actions ready to let me commit suicide to preempt suffering, not right now, but in the near future?

It is not. A healthy brain controls our behavior, and mind, in a manner that prevents us from actively just dropping out of life.

No "free will".