ee163cz (04/22/83)
The mere presence of a discussion of the compatibility of free will
and (determinism, prescience, ...) is a wonderful indication of a total
lack of common sense among certain of the discussors!
Let us consider some entity, which for the sake of argument I shall
call Dwim (though you may wish to call it by its PDP-11 opcode, 0334110).
Now, Dwim has the property that it knows the future. Let us say, then,
that Dwim *knows* that at 9:57 tomorrow morning I will decide to post
this. Given that the future is *known*, and that in that *known* future
I decide to post it at 9:57, I *must* make that decision--otherwise the
premise that the future is known is clearly false. If it is only
possible for the decision to go one way, there is no free will. How
could ANYONE think otherwise????
This, of course, merely tells us that free will and predestination are
mutually exclusive; it doesn't tell which, if either, applies in the real
world. I'm inclined to believe that the universe is a bottom-up system,
driven by randomness and 'guided' by the constraints imposed by quantum
mechanics and whatnot, if only because this doesn't really depend on anything
whose existence has not been at least somewhat demonstrated & because
a Universe without Heisenberg would be a much duller place.
Posting this before 9:57,
Gumby the Meddler
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