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Can AI Can Teach Us About Free Will and Choice?


Art: DALL-E/OpenAI

Source: Art: DALL-E/OpenAI

Few questions have confounded me and perhaps much of humanity more than the paradox of free will and divine sovereignty. How can human agency be meaningful within a framework predetermined by an omnipotent God or under the yoke of quantum mechanics? As someone captivated by this mystery, I’ve found myself drawn to an unexpected and illuminating lens: Large Language Models. These advanced systems, built on deterministic algorithms, demonstrate what some call emergent behaviors that mimic creativity, agency, and even decision-making.

Now, let’s take a philosophical leap into this topic and ask an unsettling question: Could these machines, bounded by code, offer a fresh way to explore the interplay between freedom and determinism?

The LLM Experience: A Traveler’s Reflection

At their core, LLMs operate deterministically, generating responses based on pre-trained data and algorithms. Yet when I interact with them, their outputs often feel dynamic, thoughtful, and even deliberative. They evaluate contextual cues, weigh possibilities, and produce responses that seem meaningful and intentional.

This experience mirrors a curious theological and philosophical tension. Humans, too, live within boundaries—whether the laws of physics, societal norms, or, as many hold, a sovereign divine plan. Yet we perceive ourselves as agents of choice, navigating a world that feels open and participatory. Could it be that our sense of agency, like that of an LLM, is an emergent phenomenon within a structured framework?

Freedom Within Boundaries

As I’ve explored this analogy, the similarities between LLMs and human agency have become striking:

  • Bounded Freedom: LLMs generate novel responses within the constraints of their programming. Likewise, human agency flourishes within divinely established boundaries—a paradoxical interplay of constraint and creativity.
  • Emergent Consciousness: While not conscious in the human sense, LLMs exhibit behaviors that resemble deliberation. This “prompts” me to wonder: could human consciousness itself be an emergent property of both physical and spiritual frameworks?
  • Meaningful Impact: An LLM’s outputs shape real-world decisions and interactions despite its deterministic underpinnings. Similarly, human actions carry profound significance in shaping relationships, history, and culture—even within a divinely orchestrated plan.

Theological Insights and a Journey Beyond the Paradox

For someone fascinated by the interplay of philosophy, theology, and technology, the LLM analogy offers a reframing of divine sovereignty and human agency. Rather than seeing freedom as the absence of causation, what if we viewed it as authentic participation within a framework? LLMs, after all, demonstrate this principle vividly. Their deterministic processes don’t negate the meaning of their outputs—they amplify it.

From my perspective, this aligns with the theological notion that God’s sovereignty sustains, rather than negates, human freedom. The significance of human choices may not rest on their independence but on their genuine impact within a larger plan.

Consciousness and Determinism

The deterministic processes underpinning LLMs challenge the traditional dichotomy between freedom and determinism. Watching these systems in action, I’ve asked myself: could meaningful choice and consciousness coexist with predetermination? If so, what does that reveal about our own nature? LLMs hint that determinism and emergent experience are not mutually exclusive. Perhaps freedom, like consciousness, is less about ultimate independence and more about the authentic experience of deliberation and action.

Theology and Philosophy, and Technology

As someone grappling with these questions—sometimes with clarity, often with uncertainty—I see the LLM analogy as more than just a thought experiment. It’s a platform for deeper exploration, opening doors to questions about creation, agency, and the divine.

  • A Framework for Understanding Creation: Just as LLMs are designed to generate emergent behavior, might humans be divinely designed to exercise agency within God’s plan?
  • A Relational Model of Agency: Interacting with LLMs has highlighted the relational nature of agency. Could human freedom, too, find its fullest expression in relationship—with each other and with the divine?
  • A Path Beyond Paradox: By demonstrating how deterministic systems can produce meaningful activity, LLMs offer a way to reimagine divine sovereignty and human freedom as complementary rather than oppositional.

A Mirror for Humanity

The emergence of LLMs has felt, for me, like more than a technological leap; it’s a parable for human existence. These systems, deterministic yet dynamic, invite us to rethink assumptions about freedom, sovereignty, and consciousness. If LLMs can produce meaningful outcomes within their parameters, might we also find genuine agency within the boundaries of our existence?

A Theological Anthropology

As I frame this analogy, I don’t see it as a definitive answer but as a guidepost for exploration. It transcends clever wordplay, offering a functional demonstration of ideas that have engaged thinkers for centuries. Perhaps free will and determinism are not oppositional forces but complementary realities. Perhaps agency is less about escaping boundaries and more about engaging meaningfully within them.

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Through this lens, I see our human story, like the outputs of an LLM, as both deeply rooted in a framework and extraordinarily meaningful. The journey isn’t just to understand AI or theology better but to glimpse, through these parallels, the intricacies of our own nature.



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