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Controversial take: Engineers or computer scientists have a much easier time accepting the existence of free will than physicists. Here is how I see it. Let's stick to systems modeled by ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Determinism in ODE context means the following: 1/7
The future of every trajectory of an ODE is completely determined by its past. However, and here is the key difference between physicists and engineers/CS types: This is only true for *autonomous* ODEs. Once we allow external inputs, the picture changes radically. 2/7
If we have a *controlled* ODE of the form dx/dt = f(x,u) where x(t) is the system state and u(t) is an external input, then the future of x(t) is *not* determined by its past because the input u(t) affects the future as well. Physicists allow external influences (forces) too. 3/7
But even these forces, in the Hamiltonian formulation of classical mechanics, are described through a potential that depends functionally (and deterministically) on the canonical coordinates (q,p), so all external influences are effectively banished from consideration. 4/7
Chaos notwithstanding (which is about prediction, not about causation), determinism reigns supreme in classical physics. By contrast, engineers/computer scientists are perfectly comfortable with an input-output description of systems (e.g., Turing machines are i/o models). 5/7
This input/output description is how we let free will in. Fundamentally, free will resides in the duality between knowledge and control; quoting Shannon, "we may have knowledge of the past but cannot control it; we may control the future but have no knowledge of it." 6/7
The idea that engineering or systems theory is more congenial to free will than physics is not new at all, see, e.g., "Some conceptual foundations of systems and computer science" by S.K. Mitter. http://www.mit.edu/~mitter/publications/O-3-some-conceptual-foundations.pdf 7/7
@NegarestaniReza captures with perfect precision what it means to me to be an engineer: https://www.neroeditions.com/docs/reza-negarestani-engineering-the-world-crafting-the-mind/
