On the question of free will and pre-determination,

[MineralMan]

25. Here's a story from my own life that might illustrate:

When I first went off to college, a state university in California, we were subjected to a whole battery of tests in the first week. It was 1963, and testing was thought to be important, I suppose.

Anyhow, one of the tests we took was a multiple-choice Rorschach test. The standard ink blots were associated with four or five common responses, from which one was supposed to select the best match. Now, even though I was only 18 years old, it was obvious that a multiple choice response to those inkblots was patently ridiculous. But there I was, sitting there, pondering what to do with this.

I quickly scanned through the ink blots and suggested responses. I noticed that for each ink blot, one of the options was a response that had a heavy sexual connotation. Stuff like C. Female sex organs. Other options were, perhaps closer to what I would have said if I were asked to describe the blot in my own words, but the entire concept was ridiculous, so I made a decision.

I marked the answer that had sexual connotations for every blot. I deliberately sabotaged my results.

A week later, I got a note in my dorm mailbox asking me to visit the school's counseling office. I dutifully showed up at the time designated. A nice young woman was there, maybe six years older than myself, and clearly fresh from getting her Masters in Psychology. She told me that my results from that test were troubling and she wanted to understand more about my answers. So, I explained why I had deliberately spoiled the results, since the test was so obviously useless. I reminded her that the Rorschach test is a test of individual perception, and analysis of it depends on the person's actual perceptions, not the selection of one or another stock answer.

I used my free will to make a point about the ridiculous nature of what they were trying to do. The psychologist in the counseling office allowed as how I was correct about the test and said, "Oh, never mind, then."

Individual humans are capable of analyzing situations and making decisions that are deliberately different from what is expected. We are capable of making free will choices, although we often do not.

That test was pretty much abandoned not long after.