Free Will

The question was simple on its face: is the universe deterministic or probabilistic? But it had split his Philosophy of Physics students into two irate groups. Usually the students tried to retain some sense of civility. The smartest one would give their opinion and the rest would follow suit in an attempt to avoid looking foolish. But not this class, these students had both curiosity and passion.

“If logic and rules don’t matter, if we can’t come up with a set of rules to predict the way the universe works, then why are we even here?! What would be the point of philosophy at all!” This was Shelby, the loudest person in the class and the first to give her opinion on the issue.

“No one is saying they don’t matter. All of the rules we create exist only to help us understand our universe. There is no reason to assume that we are capable of using observation to truly understand something at all, and it makes perfect sense that we would only be able to guess at the correct outcome of something rather than being able to calculate it with certainty.” This was Tiff, the smartest person in the class.

“Alright, that’s enough. We’re almost out of time so for now I’ll have to ask you to continue this argument on your own time. For homework tonight I want you to consider the effect the answer to this question has on metaphysics and human nature. Does the concept of free will fit into a deterministic universe? Can all human behavior be predicted, and if so, does free will really exist?” He sent the students on their way and began preparing for the big day.

The debate the next day was just as lively: what is free will and does it exist? The majority of the class defended the existence of free will. If Shelby had not been so sure, and so aggressive, in saying that it did not exist then the debate would have died out after a few minutes like it had in all the years before. But once again, the professor had to cut them off.

“I can tell you all thought deeply about this after yesterday’s class. I’m proud. This was actually what I did my dissertation on when I was a little older than you guys. I know that normally I try to keep my own opinions out of these debates, but would be interested in hearing it just this once?” The class was awkwardly silent before Shelby shouted “Of course! Tell us who’s right.” The class laughed at this, after all these types of questions didn’t have a definitive right or wrong. Not to most people. Not to people who didn’t know better.

“In this case you’re right, Shelby. The universe is entirely deterministic and free will does not exist.” The class was silent here, this was such a definite and odd thing to say. It didn’t carry the academic vagueness that was associated with intelligence in most philosophy programs. Dr. Moore continued, “In fact I was able to prove this while I was working on my PhD. I got my doctorate in philosophy, but my undergraduate and master’s work were both in physics. Our understanding of quantum mechanics is incorrect, and if we fully understood it then we would be able to predict every event in the universe down to the last detail. Everything that will happen was always going to happen, even me saying this.” More silence, they didn’t believe him. And why should they? He had offered them no proof. He opened the briefcase in front of him and pulled out a small black notebook, flipped to the middle, and ripped out 2 pages. “See for yourselves.”

He passed the pages out to the students. Each took a long time to make sure they read every line before passing it to the person next to them. The only thing they felt in that moment, besides curiosity, was confusion. Only a few of them would get to fear, and that would come later. Eventually the pages reached Shelby and Tiff, who were seated together to minimize the need to shout across the room.

“I don’t understand.” Tiff said this. He had always found it uncharacteristic that she was the first one to speak.

“On those pages you will see everything that was said in this debate today, word for word. I predicted it years ago.” Shelby looked at him incredulously. Another thing that he had always found funny, he was telling her she was correct yet she doubted him the most. “The hardest part was always getting the data. Knowing who is being born and where, who’s dying, but with the advent of the internet that became easier. Combine that with some neuroscience and human behavioral research, along with a bit of meteorology, and most things can be predicted with a neural network I programmed ten years ago. The first thing I did, predictably, was to print out every major moment of my life. It was hard at first, seeing the failures and heartbreaks. Knowing when and how I would die. But I always looked forward to your reactions to this knowledge.”

He looked out over his students. They didn’t know what to say; they still didn’t believe. That’s why the next part was necessary. The professor went back into his briefcase and pulled out a portable hard drive and four small stacks of hundred-dollar bills.

“It’s ok that you don’t believe me. But believe this: on the table in front of me is the prediction AI I developed and twenty thousand dollars. Most of you will be in massive amounts of debt when you graduate, and philosophy is not a field that will make you rich, so I imagine this money will go a long way. But you have to earn it.” He placed the money and the small black notebook back in his briefcase and then slung it over his shoulder. “Right now I am going into the woods south of campus. I am going to bury this notebook somewhere, and the person who finds it will get the money. But you must find it tonight, so that I know you’re not just digging at random places. You can use my AI to determine where I put it. That will hopefully change your minds.”

With that the professor left the room. The students sat quietly in their confusion until Shelby walked over to the table and picked up the hard drive. “I know everything he just said is insane, but I want that money and I’m willing to at least try using this… AI. But I know all of you feel the same way. I say we go to the computer lab upstairs and run this with all of us there so we all have the same chance of getting the money.”

The class turned to Tiff to see how she would react.

“Ok. Let’s go.”

They marched up the stairs and downloaded the AI onto one of the computers. Shelby ran it and entered in the data it requested, which was mainly just information about the weather that day. It ran for about 20 minutes. At the end of the 20 minutes a message popped up on the screen: “NOTHING FOUND.”

“Ah. Guess he really is just going insane…” Shelby said this, but no one moved to leave.

“Maybe we should try running it again?”

“Well if you insist, Tiff.” Shelby said with a wink. Another 20 minutes went by and the same message appeared. Nothing found.

“Let Tiff try it!” Shouted one of the more impatient students crowded near the back of the lab. Shelby begrudgingly moved away from the computer. Tiff sat down, entered the data the AI asked for, and ran it again. 20 minutes. Nothing found.

At this point it had been an hour. Some of the students were getting impatient. There wasn’t much they could do about it, they were philosophy undergrads and didn’t have a wealth of computer programming ability among them. A few of the students who did know a little tried to get into the backend of the program to see if they could make changes, but no one could figure out how. They were stuck with the user interface Dr. Moore had built for them. 20 minutes. Nothing found.

After 5 more tries only Tiff and Shelby were left. Neither could leave. Tiff’s curiosity and Shelby’s passion got the better of them, they had to figure this out. 20 minutes.

But this time there was a different message.

“HELLO TIFF AND SHELBY. I KNEW IT WOULD BE THE TWO OF YOU THAT STAYED. I HAD TO WAIT UNTIL THE OTHERS HAD GONE. HERE ARE THE COORDINATES WHERE I WILL BURY THE NOTEBOOK:”

A set of coordinates appeared on the screen, Tiff was quick to pull out a pen and paper to copy them down. Shelby leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling, sighing and saying “What the actual hell Dr. Moore?”

“Come on. It’s going to be dark soon and I don’t want to be walking around the woods at night.”

Shelby turned to Tiff and raised an eyebrow. “You actually wanna go?”

“He predicted we would be the only two left, and don’t you want the money?”

“Yeah, I do.” Shelby chuckled. “Anyone could have guessed we would be the last two. You’re the most dedicated and I’m the most stubborn. Who else would it have been? And for all we know he could have coded this to just print that message at a given time. It’s probably not even a real AI.”

“If he preprogrammed it that means the book is probably at those coordinates. Now come on.”

The girls threw on their jackets and began walking into the woods. The woods were deep enough to hide the view of the campus, but not deep enough to make them lose cell signal. Eventually using their map app they were able to find where the book was supposedly buried. A shovel had been left for them, which made them both realize they forgot to bring one. They exchanged a fearful look at this realization. Shelby grabbed the shovel and began to dig; as expected they uncovered the book. The money was buried next to it.

“So are we splitting the money then?” Shelby asked as she pulled everything out of the ground.

“That seems fair to me, even though you did most of the digging.” They shared a laugh that was cut short as Shelby held up the notebook.

“What do we do with this?” She asked.

“There’s probably information about us in there. He knew we would be the ones to find it. It could tell us about our futures. Or the future of the world.”

“So you believe in determinism now? Giving up on free will so soon?” This was meant as a joke but took on an unintended dark tone in the circumstances.

“You should look at it, you’re the one who doesn’t believe in free will. Tell me if it’s real in a week.”

“You should look at it! You’re the one who needs to be convinced.”

The girls went silent. They stared at each other, the fear evident in both their eyes. They didn’t say anything else as they carried the book and the money back to campus. It was in silence that they removed the AI from the computer in the lab, it was in silence that they walked back to the fire pit at the corner of campus, and it was in silence that they threw the book and the components of the now crushed hard drive into the flames. A tear rolled down Tiff’s face and Shelby took her hand. They would never know. They would tell themselves that they would never know.