Random machines or determined machines?

[Zandrav Ibistenn]

Back on OG there was once a discussion about to what extend humans could be called machines. After all the human body can be studied and its functions described in mechanical and biochemical terms. However, that does not make it a machine. The difficulties arise because the question is wrongly asked, because it forgets what makes a machine a machine.
For a simple definition I would call a machine: An energy-conversion device designed to carry out a specific function. The important thing making a thing machine-like is that it designed with a purpose in mind. It's less important that it obeys the laws of physics, because if its gears are supposed to magically rotate, then it simply won't work and we call it a worthless piece of junk, not a machine.
Therefore it is not surprising that the human body obeys the laws of physics, because if it didn't, then we wouldn't exist to ask ourselves the question (anthropic principle and all that).

Thus humans are not machines because humans are a form of life: Life has developed more or less as the result of chance with only itself as its purpose, while a machine is created by someone else to serve its master (or owner if you prefer).

From this discussion arose the question of whether free will is possible. As the working human body is a causal phenomenon this is difficult to imagine and indeed there are many compelling reasons not to. The most convincing is found in a neuroscience experiment. The activity of a brain was being monitored while the person was asked to move a limb at any time he or she pleased. In the experiment activity was detected in the areas controlling motor functions before there was conscious activity about the movement to be performed. In other words - instructions to the arm to move were already sent when the brain became aware of this.

But does this mean that the world is completely deterministic? Not precisely - that would be jumping to conclusions while not considering how poorly the brain is understood. The search for the free or bound will must involve a regression through the layers of causality: What influences consciousness? What influences that - and so on - gradually unravelling the strands of existence. What do we find on the bottom then? Well, at this point something that is very strange, unintuitive and seemingly random.

What does this mean for the will? Does the randomness on the base level permeate up through the microscopic and macroscopic realms? If not - is it then really randomness or just lack of precision in adressing the determism at the subatomic level?
Does it really make a difference whether reality is characterized by randomness or determinism? And is that difference significant? Or perhaps the inexplicable quantum reality holds the key to selfdeterminism - or free will?