williams@kirk.DEC (John Williams 223-3402) (03/16/85)
A good definition of the differences between determinism and free will is as follows: Your mind is said to have free will because there is no known way to hold a detailed description of the processes that comprise it. That is, you are unable to construct an adequately accurate model of your mind in your mind. Something is called deterministic when you are able to carry out a simulation to a reaonable degree of accuracy. Thus, it becomes impractical to view the mind deterministically. It quite simply does not have the capacity to store an accurate model of itself. It quite simply can not carry out a simulation that is accurate for the next five minutes, let alone the next five years. And I haven't even begun to touch upon the uncertainties of the open environment in which the mind resides. There is no means of taking enough into account. In other words: The resolution of the types of things we may say about the mind is still rather vague. I think you will find that it isn't so much that free will is necessary for intelligence, it is that free will is more apparent in intelligence. That is, free will may be used as a rudamentary measurement of intelligence, having some form of scaled value. That is, the more complex and unpredictable something is, the more intelligent it is. Free will and determinism are not states. They are opposite extremes of with all objects contain some aspect of both. It is an illusion of your mind that creates the seperation of these two characteristics into discrete states. Your mind balks at the concept of continuous attributes. Ah, you will have to consider the meaning of the word " is ", and how it's meaning changes when refering to open or closed environments. Next you will have to consider the meanings of " open " and " closed ". Next you will have to consider the meaning of the word " meaning ". It involves circular reasoning, and the only relief from this is that as you gain resolution, this circular reasoning expands, sometimes fooling the mind into believing that it isn't actually circular at all. The temptation, during the ignorance of not knowing the circularity of the reasoning, is to think the universe has " states ". A state is in actuallity only a tool of the mind to enable the mind to percieve things more deterministically, which has value. As you increase your resolution, you are able to percieve more " states ", possibly further than quantum mechanics. I am now open for questions. John Williams
friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) (03/18/85)
In article <1099@decwrl.UUCP> (John Williams 223-3402) writes: > > > A good definition of the differences between determinism >and free will is as follows: > > Your mind is said to have free will because there is no >known way to hold a detailed description of the processes that >comprise it. That is, you are unable to construct an adequately >accurate model of your mind in your mind. > > Something is called deterministic when you are able to >carry out a simulation to a reaonable degree of accuracy. > > Thus, it becomes impractical to view the mind >deterministically. It quite simply does not have the capacity to >store an accurate model of itself. It quite simply can not carry >out a simulation that is accurate for the next five minutes, let >alone the next five years. > > And I haven't even begun to touch upon the uncertainties >of the open environment in which the mind resides. There is no >means of taking enough into account. > > In other words: The resolution of the types of things we >may say about the mind is still rather vague. I think you will >find that it isn't so much that free will is necessary for >intelligence, it is that free will is more apparent in >intelligence. That is, free will may be used as a rudamentary >measurement of intelligence, having some form of scaled value. >That is, the more complex and unpredictable something is, the >more intelligent it is. > But it has already been pointed out that free will is *not* the same as unpredictability. I go to the same place every Thur. night - I am predictable in this regard, but I go because I *chose* to do so over a year ago. That is I am predictable because my choice was made *before* you began observation. Free will does *not* mean that I must make each decision at the same time as the action, I cna, and often do, make the decision ahead of time, in which case my behavior is predictable, but still free. -- Sarima (Stanley Friesen) {trwrb|allegra|cbosgd|hplabs|ihnp4|aero!uscvax!akgua}!sdcrdcf!psivax!friesen or {ttdica|quad1|bellcore|scgvaxd}!psivax!friesen