[MortalWombatDotCom]

Hypothetically, assume that an all powerful being could reverse time and perform the following experiment.

The being allows you to make a choice and act upon it (like deciding whether to open two boxes or only one, or deciding whether or not to jump off that ledge you are standing on).

Then, the being rewinds time and allows you to make the decision again. Everything is exactly the same. You have no knowledge of the reversal of time, because for you, the "first" runthrough hasn't happened yet.

Do you make the same decision the second time, and every other time this experiment is run?

If so, then you are essentially a machine running a program. You take as inputs all the things you observe, and your memories of everything that you have ever observed, and certain heuristics you have assembled as a result of things you have observed, and you produce the choice and you try to execute that choice. Your "free will" is just your name for the algorithm you use. It will always produce the same choice given the same EXACT inputs, and physics will take care of whether or not you successfully execute it. Why couldn't there be a reliable predictor of your choice?

If not, then you believe that what you do is random. given any particular choice, you might do one thing, you might do another thing, there is some random element that shapes the outcome. What is your free will now? In one trial, you are standing on a ledge, and you decide to jump. In another trial, you are standing on a ledge, and you decide not to jump. Is that really the way it works? That's a reasonable belief (i guess), but i personally couldn't reconcile that with a belief in a god that sends you to hell if you commit suicide but might admit you to heaven if you don't. If you're lucky, you go to heaven, if not, you go to hell. Wow. For what it's worth, I still think in this scenario you are a machine executing a program, but now your program uses as one of its inputs the output of something that is produced randomly. But i am forced to admit that there is a way of defining that random element as "free will". Congratulations. You have free will.