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Teleportation machines exist. Most people use them, and they come out the other side just fine. Would you use them? (mander.xyz)

submitted 4 days ago by SpicyAnt@mander.xyz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Would it make a difference if the laws of physics prevent or allow a machine from operating in 'duplicate' mode?

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[–] vagrancyand@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago

Free will, presumably, is the ability to choose. Or at the very least the ability to change an action from a predetermined course.

If consciousness derives from a series of physical interactions, i.e. you are just a set of electrochemical reactions that follow deterministic (i.e. unchanging no matter how many times it happens) physics, you cannot change anything. Every thought that you have ever thought was determined before electrons formed in the universe. Every single action the collection of waves and particles you arbitrarily call 'you' happened all at once at the start of the universe, we're just seeing it happen slowly.

If consciousness is deterministic, there is no concept of free will, you are in the middle of a mathematical formula being solved, nothing more or less. You have no ability to change your fate, or choose anything. Even your reaction to this idea was determined before the universe was cold enough for light to exist.

Therefore, we should hope consciousness, if nothing else in the universe, is not deterministic. That there is no ability to stop or restart it here. That there isn't a way to copy it, or paste it. Otherwise no human has ever chosen anything, even a single thought in their head.