Photons, Quasars and the Possibility of Free Will
&gt;<i>Of course, randomness isn’t the only thing necessary for free will</i><p>Not only that, but randomness and determinism are equally against the (casual) idea of free will.<p>Free will, as commonly understood, means there&#x27;s an &quot;extra layer of abstraction&quot; between the universe (material objects and their relationships) and me. What people called &quot;soul&quot;.<p>It&#x27;s not just that our decisions (will) are random instead of predetermined by a cascade of material interactions.<p>Note that if one presumes a soul, free will is then not an illogical impossibility. It&#x27;s just an extra layer of abstraction: it can decide based on our material-timeline-history (our interactions with the universe and others), but it&#x27;s not absolutely bound by them (in the way a deterministic brain would be).<p>A soul, in that sense, is like when a protagonist in a movie breaking the fourth wall. They exist in the world of the movie, but they have some footing outside of it. (Of course in the case of the movie, the breaking is scripted).