[henry quirk]

Yes, it is.

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“Look, there's more molecules in one teaspoon of brain cells than there are grains of sand on every beach in the world. We can't possibly understand or predict every chemical transaction they're making in even one microsecond of brain activity-- much less understand how this relates to consciousness, perception, or decision making.”

I don’t have to understand the myriad of processes that comprise me to recognize myself and my agency. I don’t have to be aware of molecular transaction to exercise broad self-direction (to be an agent).

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“But there's only TWO options to explain what they're doing: #1: they're obeying the laws of physics, like every other object in the vastness of the universe, of which we're just a tiny, insignificant speck.”

As you say: when don’t know and can’t know. The laws may allow for apparent violations of causality by peculiar and particular arrangements of matter, or mebbe cause and effect itself isn’t exactly what we currently think it is.

As you say: we don’t know, we can’t know.

What I do know: my experience of myself, in the world tells me I’m an agent, sumthin’ more than organic machinery with preset limited responses. Your experience of yourself, in the world tells you the same. And since ‘we don’t know, can’t know’ isn’t it just sensible to go with self-efficacy instead of self-impotence?

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“Or #2: they're animated and organized by something special, something that defies the natural laws and therefore must be transcendent-- MUST be supernatural. That's it. Either we arise from natural processes, or we arise from MAGIC.”

As Clarke noted: the sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. That which is wholly natural but not understood may too seem magical.

As you say: we don’t know. Unlike you, I think one day we will.

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“If you believe that the universe has laws and order, of which we are a part, does that mean that we're cartoon zombies who don't think or feel, and we just blindly move from one robotic task to the next? NO, BECAUSE THAT'S FUCKING STUPID.”

But zombies is exactly as you’ve described up-thread. And yeah, it is fuckin’stupid cuz I’m not determined (and neither are you).

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“What IS an automaton is each individual brain cell that makes up the processes of consciousness. None of them act against the laws of physics. And from them, something emerges which is us-- and it can think and make choices, and have free will. And we DON'T and might NEVER understand that.”

I agree completely. I’m an agent, you’re an agent, all Crom’s chillin are agents. Sumthin’ more than machinery, each and every one of us.

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“But between point A (brain cells follow natural laws) and point B (humans have free will), there is NO MAGICAL INTERVENTION.”

Agreed. Agent causation is wholly natural.

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“THEREFORE, how is human free will NOT a function of the laws of physics which govern the universe?”

It absolutely is...we just don’t understand all the ins and outs of those laws.

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“THEREFORE, what is free will?”

It is the agent who susses out his reasons (apprehending, assessing, concluding) then attempts to ‘do’ (bend and reshape causal chains, end causal chains, begin causal chains). It’s the endlessly recursive being who chooses, who responds, who sez ‘I hate spinach but I’m gonna eat it anyway’, who chooses to say ‘no’ (cuz they assess ‘no’ as right), instead of ‘yes’ (which would be easier and more profitable); it’s the guy who keeps goin’ round and with the fellow who denies his existence as agent cuz the guy is puzzled why another would self-denigrate so thoroughly (to choose to be less when one is more, that there is fuckin’ stupid).