Principle of Alternative Possibilities

Have you ever come to a Y in the road where you had to choose between going to the park or going for ice cream? This idea says that for a choice to be real, you actually have to be able to pick either one. If someone forced you to go to the park, it would not really be your choice, would it? To be a true driver, there must be more than one road you can take. This reminds us that every time we make a decision, we are standing at a fork where the future could go two different ways depending on what we say or do.

For a choice to be real you actually have to be able to pick either one. This sounds obvious. It is not. Because if the universe is deterministic — if the dominos were always going to fall this way — then the other road was never actually available. It just looked available. Like a movie set with doors painted on the wall. You felt like you chose. But there was only ever one door that opened. Frankfurt said it does not matter. He said you can be responsible for your choice even if you could not have chosen differently — as long as the choice came from your desires. But the question haunts. Because if the fork was fake, then what is a choice? And if the fork is real, then what is the universe made of that allows two futures to exist at the same time? The fork in the road is not just a question about you. It is a question about reality itself.

PAP: moral responsibility requires that the agent could have done otherwise. Frankfurt challenged this with scenarios where responsibility holds even without alternatives. The fork in the road is not just a question about you. It is a question about reality itself.

SOUND: A coin flipping in the air — heads or tails: the sound of a future that has not been decided yet.

SMELL: Two different cookies baking at the same time: the nose standing at the fork.

TASTE: Choosing between chocolate and vanilla: the tongue standing at the simplest fork in the world.

TOUCH: Reaching out your left hand versus your right: the body proving it has two roads available.

SIGHT: A signpost pointing in two different directions: the visual of a future that splits.

BODY: The tension in your muscles when you are of two minds about where to run: the body holding both futures at once.

Music: Furr by Blitzen Trapper

Music: The Power by Snap!

Part of Free Will & Choice — CONSCIOUSNESS — Education Revelation