But would you agree with this or not:
the point is :
The challenge is to show how self determination and therefore free will can defy the laws of physics.
I am attempting to logically show that life, self animation, self determination, therefore freewill does in deed defy one law of physics in particular gravity.
If I show that in a way that is conclusive regarding only one law of Physics, I believe the challenge has been met and that the criteria for claiming freewill to be an illusion is invalid accordingly.
[this would not mean that freewill is real, it only means that the criteria for judging so is or may be invalid.]
You posed this as a question of physics, but once you say "Free will" you link the context to religion. The choice you have is to admit or deny that animals, specifically those with brains, and more specifically those who have a little more than primitive brains, do indeed have the faculty we call "will". It falls completely under the jurisdiction of Biology, not Physics. "Free will" is the doctrine of religion that tries to reconcile the real world of nature with the imaginary world of the supernatural.
The ability to work the muscles against gravity is the result of a long chain of evolutionary development. If you consider how ants can lift many times their body weight, or that crickets can jump many times their body length, or that cheetas can run faster than a speeding car, or any of the many spectacular feats animals are capable of doing, you'll notice that gravity is merely one of many conditions of the niche that they contend with and exploit.
The will of an ant to do work, or a cricket to jump a meter or two, or of a cheetah to accelerate to breakneck speed, is all rooted in the brain. It's a complex system of feedback control loops with enormous quantities of inputs, know as
afferent pathways. In humans, these pathways are channeled through the brain stem, where the will is centered.
One of the best examples of how the will works is breathing. You can try to impose your will over your brain by holding your breath, but it's simply impossible to commit suicide that way. The brain provides two paths to the intercostal muscles, one which gives you temporary control over the muscles, and another which overrides you when blood gas levels hit the red zone.
The same underlying faculty, to act or not to act, has nothing to with freedom per se, just decision making. Some of those decisions are completely taken from us, such as regulating the pupils to allow enough light to enter so that we may see, but reducing the aperture when the light is so intense it may damage the retinas. The same is true of regulating the body temperature through sweating. For this reason higher animals have a parallel pathway from their brains to the organs which operates independently of all decision making.
All higher animals in which will is observed demonstrate the same basic functions of the human brain. Watch a cat stalking prey. It will seem tortured, perhaps for 5-10 minutes or more, by whether to spring or to creep. It's very obvious: the high state of alert, with the ears arched up and the eyes locked on the target. It hugs the ground and makes no sudden movements until the decision to spring is made. But the cat decides. It's brain collects and analyzes copious sensory input, just as yours does when you decide to get up and get a glass of water. In fact, a typical essay question on a Biology exam is to ask the student to trace the activity taking place in all the systems of the body when such a decision is being made, to include sensory input leading to the sensation of thirst, the visualization of where the water is, the perception of balance, the coordination of muscles, and of course the actual firing of the
efferent pathways to the muscles, over an elaborate interface that connects nerves to muscles.
You have to keep this grounded in nature. Will is an inherited trait, nothing more . . . and nothing less. Free will is another thing. It's a cultural artifact rooted in superstition, myth, legend and fable. Are you free to get a glass of water? Sure. How about your dog? Can he get up and go to his water bowl when he's thirsty. Of course he can. It's the same thing. It's just one of the fundamental traits provided by nature in animals. Animals like us, right?
