Free Will or Predictive Text? Rethinking Choice in the Age of Algorithms
Copyright: Sanjay Basu Mirror Neurons, Mirror Minds , Week 6 “Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills.” — Arthur Schopenhauer “Freedom is not the absence of necessity but the ability to act according to one’s understanding of necessity.” — Spinoza Who’s Driving? You didn’t choose that movie. Netflix did. You didn’t write that sentence. Autocomplete did. And if you’re honest, you didn’t even pick this article , your algorithmic feed just thought it looked like something “you might enjoy.” So… who’s driving? It’s an unsettling question, especially for creatures who pride themselves on choice. We love our autonomy. We put it on T-shirts, we base entire political systems on it, and we defend it furiously when anyone , or anything , tries to take it away. But what if we’re not as free as we think? What if our preferences , the movies, the partners, the beliefs, the snacks , are less about choice and more about conditioning? What if we’r...