• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    You are either saying that you can predict where a fly is going to go when you set it free or you are saying that a fly has internal agency.

    If the fly lacks agency, you would be able to predict its movement given a sufficiently accurate set of information.

    If it has agency, you could not.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      5 months ago

      It’s difficult to predict the path of a leaf floating in the wind, but I don’t think anybody would say a leaf has agency.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        5 months ago

        It’s difficult to predict the path of a leaf floating in the wind

        Orders of magnitude less difficult, as the leaf can’t glean your intent and respond accordingly.

    • brrt@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      You missed the point while drawing your circular argument.

      Take what you said and replace fly with human. Wait here I’ll do it for you:

      If a human lacks agency, you would be able to predict its movement given a sufficiently accurate set of information.

      If it has agency, you could not.

      Now tell me how you will acquire a sufficiently accurate set of information about a human and its environment to test your hypothesis.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        5 months ago

        Now tell me how you will acquire a sufficiently accurate set of information about a human and its environment to test your hypothesis.

        You can’t. That’s a significant problem of identifying the existence or absence of “Free Will”.