Free Will - Or Not

I was having a cup of coffee on a morning cool enough to sit outside, under a bunch of trees on campus.  When, suddenly, I felt something soft dropped on my pants.  I instinctively knew it was a bird’s droppings.  So it was.  My instinctive reaction was to get mad at the bird.  Why did it have to do that?  Wait till I get my hands on that wretched thing …!

Within seconds, however, I was having second thoughts.  Who am I kidding?  There is really no way I could get my hands on that bird.  I cannot even see it.  Most likely it is already gone.  What if I actually do catch it?  Am I really going to punish that poor bird?  It most likely did not mean to dirty my pants.  It was just doing what it has been doing all its life - what comes naturally.  So what did I actually do after thinking this through?  I went to fetch some water to clean up the little mess, and returned to work.

I happened to be reading Robert Sapolsky’s book “Determined - The Science of Life Without Free Will”, when the bird decided to poo on me.  His premise, based mainly on physics, biology and neuroscience, is essentially that there is no free will.  Everything that we do, and even think, are determined.  By what happened a split second before, a minute before, to days, months, years, thousands and even millions of years before.  By our genes, biology, experiences.  Everything is determined - what we think, and act. 

So, what happened with the incident with the bird’s poo?  My first reaction was certainly reaction - without thinking, without an explicit “will”.  What about the subsequent “change of mind”, after “thinking through” - relatively cool reasoning?  Was I excising my will freely?  Or was that determined by my genes, biology, and life experiences?  

Looking back, it certainly feels like I was excising my will, relatively freely.  My thinking and decision were, no doubt, affected by what I know, and experienced earlier.  But it also feels like I did have a choice.  To remain upset, or to calm down and deal with it pragmatically.  So what is the answer?  Is there free will or not?