*shrugging noises*

This is a serious answer by the way. I don’t have some sort of secret system or pattern dictating when I capitalize or not capitalize the words in my post titles (although that does sound like it could be a fun thing to do in the future). In general, most people who have gone through grade school have had grammar hammered into their heads over the course of the years. But this is the internet. The lack of formality is oftentimes not only acceptable but encouraged. But sometimes the compulsive tendency to abide by grammar rules will just kick in, like a habit. But on a case to case basis, whether I capitalize my titles or not is based on nothing and completely random.

Or is it? *Vsauce music begins to play*

See, now the problem is that we are getting into the question of what is truly random. Is reality predeterministic? Does free will actually exist? It’s an interesting thing to think about. The idea behind predeterminism is that everything that happens is based on prior events that have happened. Any uncertainty towards the future is a flaw in our understanding and knowledge of what happened in history. Flipping a coin does not have a 50% chance of getting a head and a 50% chance of getting tails. It has a 100% chance of getting either heads or tails. We just do not know which it is. But an omniscient observer who sees how we flip the coin, feels the wind current, and knows the exact weight distributions of the coin can accurately tell how the coin will land the moment it leaves your fingers. There actually already are robots that can do this. Advanced kinematics algorithms do all the work and can predict how a coin will land with high degrees of precision. Apply this principle on a larger scale and you have to really think, is everything like this? Would knowing the location and speed of every air molecule on the planet and every associated object allow us to give weather forecasts accurately down to the second? Would knowing the position of every neuron in our brain and having knowledge of how they work, allow us to predict every action a person will make? Consider Bayes’ theorem, which states that the likelihood of something happening is based on what happened previously in similar conditions. This is how we forecast weather work. But this is just used to calculate probabilities and not guaranteed outcomes. Bayes’ theorem would suggest that given two scenarios with all-encompassing identical starting conditions, they would both yield identical results. Naturally two identical starting conditions are physically impossible in real life. Even with the ability to travel back in time, you still can’t just reset a scenario with perfectly identical starting conditions because by definition, your time traveling self would be a change to the experiment. Conforming predeterminism is thus impossible due to our ability to test out two scenarios with identical starting conditions. 

So do random events actually occur? Is free will a lie or not? Well that’s still a question we haven’t answered. Allow me to redirect your attention to the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. The Copenhagen Interpretation is an awfully complicated subject, and even within the scientific community, there is not a clear consensus on what exactly it is. But to simplify it in the most basic way, it’s the idea that quantum particles exist not in one particular state, but exist as a collection of probabilities. It then “arbitrarily” chooses a state when it is forced to interact with something else. “Arbitrarily” is a key word here. The definition of random is something that occurs not based on pre-existing events or a laid out pattern. As of today, quantum events appear to happen randomly. There’s still probability involved, but beyond that, there’s no way to predict an outcome with 100% guarantee. Mathematically speaking, there’s some bits of information we physically cannot know. Like knowing both the velocity and position of an electron is impossible. This is called the uncertainty principle. It’s not just a physical limitation due to our ability to observe the particles, the uncertainty is innate. So the definition of random appears to apply right? It really does seem that way. The only other explanation would be a little concept called “hidden values”. This is a supposed kind of precondition that we cannot perceive. Like a genetic code that instructs particles how to react. There’s really no way to determine if “hidden values” exist or not. But they are pretty much our only defense against the idea that true randomness exists.

So right now, our free will loyalists are probably looking pretty happy. The existence of randomness implies not everything is deterministic. So fate can be changed and not everything is set in stone. But I’m about to end this on a potentially depressing note. The truth is, it doesn’t really matter. Free will is a concept conceived to make us feel like we have control. Whether it’s fate that controls your actions or complete arbitrary randomness that dictates what happens, it’s not really you in control is it? Even if true randomness exists, that once again means that it is not you who is controlling the course of events, as randomness requires a lack of reason. The very concept of “changing your fate” is also meaningless without knowledge of what you perceive fate to be. Saying you changed your fate is silly; how do you know what you just did wasn’t always supposed to happen?

My intent today was not to fill you with existential dread. And if you are feeling that right around now, allow me to change that. Because when I said “it doesn’t really matter”, I mean that in both ways. Because if you think about it, free will is the idea that a conscious mind is able to make its own decisions. And our bodies are but made of the very ether that reality exists in. We shouldn’t think of our will as being “free” or “controlled”. Whether predetermined or not, take solace in the fact that our will is our own. Think instead that we are the embodiment of the universe experiencing itself. Our actions are a result of our own identities. And that will forever be unique.