---
title: "Free will · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/free-will
description: "Free will is the ability of agents to choose between alternatives in a way that makes them morally responsible."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Ethics & metaphysics

# Free will

Definition

Free will is the ability of agents to choose between alternatives in a way that makes them morally responsible. Libertarians say this needs indeterminism. Compatibilists say it fits with determinism. Hard determinists deny it exists.

On this site

The Free will dial. Genuinely free adds no computing, because nobody knows how to compute it.

Role in the model

The Free will dial adds no computing, and that’s the finding. Determined, random and compatibilist choices are all cheap to render. For Genuinely free, nobody knows how to compute it. So whoever runs the world has to leave a gap and accept whatever shows up in it. The Tensions window flags this.

Related

[Determinism](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/determinism)[Compatibilism](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/compatibilism)[Existentialism](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/existentialism)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)