Free Will is an Illusion
Description
What we perceive as free will is merely the experience of making choices without awareness of the deterministic neurological and environmental processes that actually cause our decisions. Our sense of agency is a useful evolutionary adaptation but does not reflect metaphysical freedom.
Falsification Criteria
This conjecture would be falsified if: (1) A peer-reviewed neuroscience study, replicated by at least 2 independent labs by 2028, demonstrates neurological activity that cannot be explained by prior physical causes; (2) A formal experimental protocol shows decision-making processes that violate causal closure with statistical significance of p<0.001; (3) A measurable mind-brain interaction mechanism is discovered that allows consciousness to affect neural activity without corresponding prior neural correlates; or (4) Quantum effects in the brain are definitively shown to enable free will through controlled experiments that isolate and measure these effects specifically in decision-making processes.
Bounty
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Sign inRefutations
Rational criticism and counterarguments to this conjecture
Quantum indeterminacy at the subatomic level introduces genuine randomness into physical systems, including brains. This undermines the deterministic assumption behind the rejection of free will. If neural processes involve quantum effects, true freedom might emerge from this physical indeterminacy.
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