gmf@uvacs.UUCP (07/10/84)
Testamentally Most stars are furnaces but some are clasps. One day the sky will open like a cloak to show the circuitry, the bits and waves which architect the days that age our destinies. Our wills (for all your argumentery), our wills (except for that) are free. Gordon Fisher (Inspired by the recent debate on mind, behaviorism, free will and all like that in net.philosophy.)
rogerb@tektronix.UUCP (Roger Bonzer) (07/18/84)
------------------------------------- [Ignore this non-existent line] What is free will? We say that we use it to make choices with, but that doesn't say much. All we can say is that options get evaluated (obviously not a static one, since most peoples' priorities change during their lives) and a choice is somehow selected. Note that, after evaluation, the 'weight' of an option should be completely independent of the actual option, because if it is used in the actual choosing, it must have been considered somehow, and can therefore be included in its 'weight.' Now obviously the choice is not made by any sort of consistent (but not necessarily static) weighing function (ie, take the one that is most/least/whatever), because that would imply some sort of deterministic thinking process, thus denying the accepted meaning of free will. Therefore, it would seem that, since choices are not consistent, 'free will' could be replaced with no discernible difference by an appropriate type of random generator. (And of course the reason everyone is different is because we all started off with different seeds! But seriously, folks... :-) Is what you mean by having free will merely that you are sufficiently random? It does not seem any better to say that one is not a Pawn of Inexorable Law just to say that one is a Avatar of Dynamic Caprice, either. Roger B. ...!tektronix!rogerb 'Reality is merely God's Gedankenexperiment.'