> How do you reconcile being a machine made of matter with the feeling that you're free to choose what you do? First, accept the fact that "you" are _only_ tha

> How do you reconcile being a machine made of matter with the feeling that you're free to choose what you do? First, accept the fact that "you" are _only_ that machine. No higher "soul". The machine (you!) has free will in that it decides for itself, through physical processes occurring within it, what it wants - albeit with some outside forces, circumstances and other individuals influencing this anywhere from a bit to a lot. You are this mostly-independent machine operated by physical forces. Therefore, you have free will. A secondary question is whether the state of the universe and therefore of you the machine at time T also pre-ordains what you will do and what you will want at time T+1. I think a more interesting question is whether that actually matters in any practical or even metaphysical sense, given that we experience time linearly in the direction we do?