Opinion: Why We’ll Never Truly Know If Free Will Exists

Consider yourself. Now consider that everything we experience within the universe-our lives, our decisions - is just a continued reaction resulting from the Big Bang. Every action, every thought, would then just be a further developing step in one enormous, cosmic chain of cause and effect.

We certainly like to believe we are autonomous beings with free will and that our actions are independent reactions caused by our own decisions. But if everything within our observable universe is bound by a set of universal laws, then our so-called "choices" may be only actions according to those very limitations and happening out of an unrealized inevitability or necessity.

We have collided with a paradox, my friend, because if we do not have free will, then it would follow that the very questioning of its existence is preordained - the experience of considering whether we are in control is, itself, predetermined, just another part of the universe's response following the Big Bang. Correct?

We just landed ourselves on a big, fat recursive question. Because if we're fooled into believing in autonomy, who or what is actually experiencing that illusion? The fool. Who is the fool? Could the awareness of being fooled itself suggest some form of freedom? Unsurprisingly, it seems as if every attempt to find that "self" in control or experiencing our freedom turns back upon itself. It is stuck in a kind of Fibonacci spiral- the deeper one searches for the source of the autonomous drive, the more layers, more "observers" behind each thought. Thus, self-questioning goes on infinitely, circling around an idea of free will that is never fully attained.

Perhaps the nature of free will, then, lies in this endless exploration, an infinite process of questioning that mirrors the Fibonacci spiral found in nature. Just as galaxies and seashells unfold according to this pattern, our minds trace a similar path in their pursuit of understanding. It's as if we're wired to question, designed to dance forever along the edges of these fundamental mysteries. Maybe the beauty in free will isn't in any aspect of control over the universe; rather, it is in the strange, recursive beauty of questioning it, reflecting the universe back upon itself for answers that are always out of grasp. Some questions may seem too complex for our cognition to tackle, but perhaps these questions only sound complicated.

Perhaps it is simply recursion- a Fibonacci spiral present within everything, even our very thoughts.