I like to think of Free Will and agency as just a useful means of compartmentalizing things.
Everything in my house is made of matter and atoms. But it's useful to say that my computer is "intelligent" while my couch is not. Technically it's all just part of a giant soup, but within that soup are more independent and more self determined agents. My Roomba is not self aware but I recognize it as separate from my floor and it has at least some awareness of its surroundings. I can't predict its path or its choices perfectly but I don't doubt that its software is ultimately deterministic if I could perfectly debug it.
Similarly I can't predict even my own decisions perfectly but I certainly have a distinct independence from my environment compared to even a Roomba. Ironically though it's this independence and ability to process my environment that in many ways makes me even more influenced and less free. A Roomba never observes another Roomba and changes its behavior. So in many ways it's free to continue being what it was. If I observe something it affects me and changes how I think. I'm in many ways controlled more by external influences. My flexibility in adapting to new environments also means that my environment has a much greater influence on who I am.
So who is freer me or a robotic butler?
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