Hacker News Reader

For me, acting as if people possess free will is a conscious decision. When I'm tired, I sometimes slip into my natural mode of thinking of everyone as automatons. I have to choose to believe that people are conscious. I have to remind myself that people are not merely robots, or even if they are, it's self-destructive if I think of them as robots.

View on HN

You didn't choose to believe, because you don't have free will, remember?

If there is no free will, then the word "choose" is not a special word that implies consciousness. The word "choose" simply means particles flow one direction instead of another due to some combination of other particle flows. Therefore, whether I have free will or not, yes I did choose to believe.

You think everyone else can't make conscious decisions, but you can? That sounds like solipsism, or just a lack of empathy.

Yes, there is a part of me that seems solipsistic. There is also another part that sees myself as an automaton along with everyone else. And there is yet another who reasons that at some level of sophistication, it's impossible to distinguish between automatons and beings with free will; I no longer care whether I have free will and rejoice in living along with everyone else.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com