Against the Wind: What’s the Deal with Free Will?

Michael Abramson

11 a.m., December 15, 2019

Do we really have a Free Will? If we do, in what sense our choice is “free”? If we don’t and our Free Will is just an illusion, why is this illusion so important to us, and what is behind it? Do we need a Free Will to make moral choices?

These questions were debated for centuries, but now we can try to draw insights from psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and other disciplines. Do we know enough to develop a “model” of Free Will consistent with our subjective experience and moral intuition? What can we learn from it?

Finally, even if our Free Will served us well in the past, can it still be a reliable guidance in the Silicon Age?

Let’s try to find the answers together.

Michael Abramson is a physicist specializing in system modeling and simulations, and a concerned citizen leading a “Positive Agenda” group who is involved with a number of activist organizations.

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Against the Wind: What’s the Deal with Free Will? – Michael Abramson from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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