Free Agency and Determinism: Is There a Sensible Definition of Computational Sourcehood?

Area of Science:

• Philosophy of Mind
• Computer Science Theory
• Metaphysics

Background:

• Compatibilism suggests free agency can coexist with determinism.
• Computational irreducibility explains apparent free will in deterministic systems by limiting predictive shortcuts.
• Existing concepts may not fully capture actual free agency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and formalize computational sourcehood as a variant of computational irreducibility.
• To investigate the compatibility of free agency with determinism through a computational lens.
• To explore the formal definition of computational sourcehood for actual free agency.

Main Methods:

• Introduced a novel variant of computational irreducibility termed 'computational sourcehood'.
• Analyzed the formal possibility of defining computational sourcehood.
• Investigated the relationship to simulation preorders on Turing machines and structure-preserving functions.

Main Results:

• Computational sourcehood captures the idea that a process's behavior prediction requires an almost-exact representation of the process itself.
• Identified concrete challenges in formally defining computational sourcehood.
• Highlighted the importance of structure-preserving functions in simulation levels for this definition.

Conclusions:

• Computational sourcehood offers a potential framework for understanding actual free agency in deterministic systems.
• Formalizing computational sourcehood is technically complex, involving simulation preorders and specific function types.
• The study provides a technical analysis and identifies key obstacles toward a complete definition.