Do we have free will?
So I was thinking.
If we put a person inside a room with no possibility of any external influence entering it
and we could get the speed, direction and other information of every particle in the room,
then starting from the fact that our brain is just atoms interacting with each other by well known rules it should be possible to predict everything the person in the room would do.
Even more, if we would be able to make an exact copy of the first room (with exact particle positions and speeds) then the persons in the two rooms should behave exactly the same
and we would see the exact scene no matter which room we looked into.
Now instead of the room let us suppose we could leave our universe and do the same.
We would be able to use a computer to simulate the movement and interaction of particles and therefore predict what would happen.
I don't know if there are any completely unpredictable particles in our universe but then again if there were it would not imply the possibility of free will, but the fact that some of our actions are completely random.
We would of course never be able to do this from inside our own universe (or from inside the room) since the act of calculating that data would mean we have already changed it since the data was collected, therefore we are not calculating with accurate data. And the data would change as we calculate. We would therefore not be able to predict our own future (at least not without a margin of error that would get bigger the more into the future we tried to predict).
But even if we can't actually do it, I believe that given a state in the universe all of it's future states are predetermined by the current movement and position of it's particles.
I am not trying to say that we can not make our own decisions based on what we think is best.
But what we think is best has been predetermined by input our brain received in the past.
The only hole I see for free will to fit in, is for us to actually have a soul, that is at least partially in another plane of existence (dimension) where different rules of physics apply.
But (religious views aside) now knowing anything about the workings of such soul or the rules of physic that apply to it I believe it is pointless to speculate on the matter.
What do you think?
I see some people are missing what I'm trying to ask here.
I am not saying there is no spiritual attribute to the human being.
What I want to say is: Under the condition that the universe is solely material: we have no free will.
Because the interaction of matter predefines everything that will happen.
And in my view free will is impossible if our decisions are predetermined.
Example
What I don't mean: I want to go skiing but I will go swimming because I don't have free will and it was predetermined that I will go swimming.
What I mean: Actions in the past have led me to wish to go skiing. I now go skiing because I decided that way.
My action was at the same time chosen from what I want, and predetermined by things in my past.
Therefore I chose what I want, but I didn't have free will because
past experiences have defined what I will think when the question arises.