Is Your Free Will an Illusion?

Or is the concept of a mechanistic universe just philosophical masturbation?

Your choice about a banana or an apple was written into the universe long before you made it.

Suppose you were hungry, so you go to your kitchen and see a banana and an apple. Which do you choose?

According to Sam Harris in a podcast on the topic, you don’t have a choice. You feel like you do, but, you don’t. Because, Harris says, the universe is fundamentally mechanistic. Which means, you don’t really have free will. You think you do, but that’s just an illusion because the circumstances that led to your choices happen on a level both before and below your perception.

Every thought you have is based on the influences of your life and environment and genetics, all leading to the moment of choice between a banana and an apple. Every cell in your brain is active in certain ways because of the activities that preceded them. Every atom in the universe is moving in the direction they’re moving right now in reaction to the movements and interactions the moment before this. The whole universe has been set on rails since the big bang, and you’re just part of the flow.

The idea is not original to Harris. It’s been around for centuries, but seems to bubble up now and again. From what I can tell, it might gain traction when certain technologies, like clocks or computers or brain scanners come…