Is there a ghost in the machine or not?

If there is no ghost in the complex human bio-organic machine, then its just a machine. Sure, a highly complex, self-reflective, at times neurotic, machine, but nothing is there to “freely choose” anything. There’s no “you”.

Even the most complex Rube Goldberg machine imaginable does not choose in any sense what it wil do. Whether or not the Rube Goldberg machine is “free of undue influences” is a dumb question, right? There is no “you” there, no ghost in the machine that can decide, choose, prefer, or elect to do or not do anything, right?

Unless you think there’s some mystical, obscure, magical “you” in your brain, that is, in some even fractional degree, free from the laws of physics and chemistry, you cannot claim free will exists. And as above, the “undue influence” argument is just dad joke level word play.

On the other hand, if you say yeah, there’s some part of me that is 0.000001% free from physical influences, you are claiming there’s a ghost in the machine. People don’t like to admit it, but you can’t have it both ways- I 100% embrace science AND there’s a ghost in the machine. Uh uh.