by Aaron Wintrich

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The apparent and Yet Difficult Choices Found in Spatial Reasoning

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Chess is one of the best example's I have found to use in the argument of free will vs. determinism. Determinists believe all action and causes in the universe have a measurable and predictable effect, and therefore all effects have a traceable lineage of causes which negates the possibility of free agency. However in chess if we analyze a position with the strongest level computer program, the program will generate multiple moves it can choose from each with different percentages of success. While a person would most likely choose the move with the highest percentage, the chess program itself will sometimes choose the move with a lower percentage of success; say the 75% success rate move instead of the 90% success rate move. Why would the computer choose to make a move which is less likely for success when it had generated better moves? If determinism states that all things in the universe mechanically operate in a predictable way to achieve the most probable state, why then with the above example we see an operation taking place where probability in one instance is not used? Is it our fallibility and imperfection, the fact that we do not always make the best or most probable choice which is our free will? Perhaps free will is not necessarily our ability to choose an outcome but the potential which exists that does not force us to stay on our predestined path? Although the right choice may seem apparent, it is still a difficult one to make...

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