Reality seems to play tricks on us. Today I am here to talk about free will—or perhaps the lack thereof. By letting go of our assumptions, we can explore the very essence of reality itself. The question that pervades my mind is this: Does reality work on small scales for humans and our path through life? Does free will truly exist, or are our actions predetermined, set in stone at the beginning of time and space, at the birth of the universe?
No one truly knows the answers to these questions. Yet simply exploring and contemplating them brings life and light to my world. The fact that we—or I as an intelligent, self-aware individual—can think about such things here and now is remarkable in itself.
On the scale of particles such as light and electrons, their paths are calculated using probability amplitudes. Each path of a particle in a vacuum seems to have millions, if not billions, of possible trajectories it could travel when emitted from a source. These paths are calculated by adding together the contribution of each trajectory and then taking the square of the sum to identify the probability that a particle took a given path at a given time.
Some paths seem to cancel one another out, while others reinforce each other, raising or lowering the probability function. In the end, particles often move along straight paths that appear to behave like waves due to the cancellation and reinforcement of all those possible paths.
Does life work this way? Does our path through life resemble a probability amplitude function?
Each of us travels a path through life. Some paths zigzag. Some loop back as we make the same mistakes again and again. Others take what seems like a straight course toward their destination. Yet somehow we arrive where we are through a mixture of circumstance and choice.
Particles don’t make choices. They follow the laws of physics and the properties of the fundamental forces unless influenced by an outside source. Humans, however, experience something different—we perceive the act of choosing.
The best path in life is often said to be the path of least resistance. Yet resistance itself can build character and resilience, making us stronger in the long run. The flow of life can be compared to an electric current: it requires charge within us, a rate of flow—like amperage—and some resistance along the way to shape the outcome.
Is life like a coin flip, where some get heads and others get tails, as if statistics alone determines whether someone fails or succeeds in life’s journey? The game of statistics alone cannot possibly decide our fate. Instead, it may be our actions—or lack thereof—that work together like probability amplitudes in the subatomic world.
Some actions add together over time, increasing the probability of success. Others cancel out and lead nowhere. Some actions trap us in loops, repeating patterns that never quite move us closer to where we want to go.
Does fate or destiny play any role in this path through life?
Time itself is a strange construct of reality, and it is not uniform. Time does not act the same on all objects; it depends on their velocity relative to something else. This idea was famously explored by Albert Einstein through the theory of relativity.
Stay with me for a moment, because this connects to the idea of destiny.
If time effectively stops at the speed of light, then for light there is no passage of time between its emission and absorption. In a sense, the past, present, and future might exist together in a single timeless frame. Yet because we do not travel at such velocities, we perceive time in seconds, minutes, hours, days, and years.
If the past, present, and future exist simultaneously in some deeper sense of reality, does that mean the future has already happened and we merely observe it unfolding day by day? Are we observers moving slowly through a block of time that already exists?
Did the writing of this very essay already happen, and I am writing it now because some future version of myself has already done so? In other words, is the future preordained?
Unless humanity someday travels at such incredible velocities as space explorers, we may never truly know. For now, these ideas remain mostly in the realm of science fiction and philosophical thought.
Life contains an enormous number of variables. Perhaps life is not only about the individual, but about the collection of conditions that surround us. Where you were born, your race, your socioeconomic status during childhood—these things may shape the path available to you long before you even become aware of it.
Maybe it is not quantum mechanics or destiny that determines our path, but access to knowledge, opportunity, and resources. Or perhaps it is one’s will and determination to succeed that pushes a person forward against the odds.
But what happens when the will of one person collides with the will of another—like two particles smashing together in an accelerator?
Such collisions change the trajectory of both particles, and perhaps both people. One may redirect the other, or cancel the other’s momentum entirely.
Perhaps the coordinated efforts of a few can shape the fate of the many. The actions of others around us—near and far—change the probability of success or failure in our own lives. This suggests that our paths are influenced by countless interacting variables.
Like light passing through water, perhaps the goal is not to remain rigid and unchanging, but to bend without breaking. If we can adapt to the forces and variables around us, then maybe we can still guide our path through the ever-changing landscape of reality.
Perhaps life is neither predetermined nor random, but something in between. Just as particles explore every possible path before settling into the most probable one, perhaps our lives unfold through a mixture of circumstance, choice, and interaction with others. Each decision we make adds to or subtracts from the probability of the life we eventually live. In this sense, destiny may not be a fixed road laid out before us, but a landscape of possibilities shaped by our actions, the actions of others, and the countless variables of the universe itself. If reality truly does work this way, then perhaps free will is not the power to control the entire path, but the ability to influence which of the many possible paths becomes the one we ultimately travel.
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