[Avodah] Free Will vs. Physics

[Ben Waxman]

But what you are describing is something that is for all practical purposes, 
meaningless. When the person learns how to use the TV control, then said 
control can be meaningful in his life. Until then it is one more useless 
hunk of circuits. So a baby's free will, assuming that he really has it, is 
also useless to him.

Ben
> From: Zev Sero <zev at sero.name>

>
> What we learn as we grow older (and what animals never learn, if they
> have this bechira in the first place) is how to *use* it.  I see a baby
> as like a person holding the remote control to a TV, one of those
> complex remotes with hundreds of buttons and all kinds of functions,
> but who has no idea how to use it, or even what it's for.  He just
> pushes buttons at random, but he's still *deciding* which ones to push,
> although he has no particular reason for that decision.  Eventually he
> learns that certain buttons produce certain results, and as a result
> his decisions become more rational and planned, but their fundamental
> nature hasn't changed.  He is no more in control of the TV now than he
> was then, he's just getting better results now that he knows what he's
> doing.
>