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Wills Choice
Casey Lange
(Every name, date, location and plot point was taken directly from a dream.)
Will had a choice to make, but it wasnt going to be an easy one. He was sitting in a
coffee shop, trying to decide whether or not to order coffee. Although he was able
to decide for himself, the actual decision would always be left up to chance. He took
a die out of his right pocket; everyone in New York had one, A new age, the mayor
said.
To celebrate the new year of 1950, we have decided that all decisions should be
left to chance. You shall all receive a six sided die, which will be needed to make
decisions. How you interpret the numbers is up to you, and hopefully order will
come about from this action.
This announcement really bothered Will, because he enjoyed having free will. It
seemed like such an essential part of being human. The ability to make choices.
Now that they had been stripped away from him, in a way, life had become easier.
He no longer had to worry about saying or doing the wrong thing. There was no
right or wrong, only chance. However, Will was not one to leave things to chance,
and today he was going to fix that. He had to make a choice, but it wouldnt be an
easy one. He wanted to order a cup of coffee. So he threw the die on the counter.
Four even.
Can I please have a cappuccino? He asked the barista, who took out his die and
threw it. Two even.
Coming right up, sir, he responded, and walked over to the coffee grinder. Will
rolled his die again, this time to decide whether or not to look at television. Two
even. His head turned and he could see a live news report that had something to do
with the Empire State Building. Will didnt really care for it until he heard the words
Big Ben mentioned. Apparently the building was renamed through an unfortunate
dice throw by the mayor. Will thought about looking away, but decided not to take
the chance.
Mental calculations were okay, because obviously if you had to roll your dice to
think, the ability to roll the dice would require a mental calculation, which would
cause a paradox. Will knows the universe tries to avoid paradoxes. That was all well
and good, but if people had to choose to choose, they would all become vegetables.
No mind, no nothing. They would fall the ground and slowly die. Although they could
take solace in the fact that they would feel no pain because there was no mind to
feel it, they would also be horrified in the fact they wouldnt see it coming.
Time would just stop for them. Not only that, their consciousness would simply
cease to exist. Will heard the all familiar sound of a die hitting a hard surface before
bouncing around and ultimately settling. The barista came over to Will and

presented him with his coffee. Will now has to decide whether or not to thank to
barista, and if he should address him by name and whether or not to drink the
coffee in the first place. Three possible outcomes. Due to the nature of the die,
which Will considered calling The Device, a situation with more than two
outcomes works differently. For three outcomes, the numbers one, two and three
will result in success of at least one outcome. A situation with four possible
outcomes would require the die to land on one through four, etc.
His head was still turned, but he could see the coffee in his peripheral vision, as well
as where the die might land. He threw it and it landed on five odd. This bothered
Will, as now he wouldnt be able to drink the coffee. You cannot throw the die more
than once for the same thing hoping for a better result; its like wishing for more
wishes. Thats why Wills choice would be so hard to make. This, like many other
things was discovered the hard way. The mayor announced that the dice program
was a terrible idea a few days ago.
He announced, Fellow New Yorkers, I realize we can no longer go on like this, I shall
throw my die in order to see whether we keep going forever, or stop. On live
television he threw his die and it landed on a three odd. Thats when everyone
realized they were stuck in this endless loop. Choice had no longer become
relevant.
Unfortunately the dice only allowed for a maximum of six possible outcomes.
Everyone was still in the process of trying to circumvent this. Perhaps God also
plays with dice, despite what Einstein might think. Will thought. He knew the
everyday world is governed by classical mechanics, and that is completely
deterministic. The question posed is why we use probabilities, in this case, throwing
dice. Will guessed it was a simple case of lack of knowledge. You never know exactly
how the dice was thrown, what the imperfections on the table are, and so on.
Will knew that in theory, if he knew all that, he could predict exactly what number
would come up each time, and use that knowledge to get and do whatever he
wanted. He did not know these things, as no one would. Surely there were ways to
exploit the dice. Could it perhaps be used to grant super powers, or even travel
through time? Could it bend the laws of physics and create alternate universes? Will
had never tried these things, nor had he seen any reports of it being documented.
Will sighed, it was time for him to make a choice, and it wouldnt be an easy one.
He had figured out a way to cheat the system and wondered if anyone else had as
well. As long as one person in New York gets this right, order would eventually be
restored. Will had to decide whether or not to throw the second, loaded die he had
in his left pocket. Potentially all of human existence hung on this one single choice.
He threw his unloaded die, while his head was still turned to the television. Almost
in slow motion, the dice settled down. Four even. Will silently cheered in his head.

He would be the bringer of order, of change, of free choice. He took out the loaded
die from his left pocket and paused for a moment. He knew that what he was about
to do wouldnt work with a normal die. As there was a fifty percent chance that it
wouldnt work, which would cause the thrower to no longer be bound by the die,
and thus, unable to make any more decisions, before turning into a vegetable. The
die may also be soul bound to the next person to pick it up, as this is what
happened to Will, but it wouldnt make it so you could make twelve decisions or
even throw a die for the same thing twice. It was just another one to carry around
with you. On the flip side, were the dice to land correctly, this process would be
unnecessary. It was time to throw the die. Will had to decide as to whether or not he
would get his free will back. That was the choice.

But Will was not one to leave things to chance. He threw the loaded die, which
landed on a six even. Will felt it immediately, as he looked away from the
television and back to his coffee, which he now drank with ease. He got up, thanked
the barista and walked out of the shop. He would now grant others free will by
rolling that loaded die for each of them, as they would then do to others by placing
their die in an oven for a few minutes, with six being at the top. Thats how you
make a loaded die. Like a virus, this would spread until everyone got their free will
restored. The more people who figure this out the better. Will had made his choice,
and it was a relatively easy one.