I’ve had a lifelong love affair with Scientific American. I began reading it as a freshman in high school, particularly Martin Gardner’s monthly column on “Mathematical Games,” and I have subscribed to the magazine off and on throughout my adult life. Even though I have felt that over the years the articles have gotten less accessible to the lay reader, perhaps that’s more a function of my waning patience than it is the actual difficulty level of the articles.
In the most recent issue there is an article by two psychologists, entitled “The World Without Free Will.” I thought, aha, here finally will be scientific evidence to support my position that free will does not exist. I saved the article for last, thinking how much I would savor what the authors had to say. I was in for a major disappointment, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think.
