jcz (08/11/82)
Well, the latest talk about Free Will and Time Travel has
been very interesting; you see, I am somewhat of a philosophy
student and am now studying the mind-body problem, and just fin-
ished jjc smart's book 'Problems in Space-Time.' You should read
it.
First, the problem of free will vs determinism is wholely
separate from the problem of materialism vs dualism. The spe-
cious self, that bit of you that does the Iyaming, could still be
a manifestation of some 'other part' of reality, even though it
did not experience free will. Also, a materialistic being might
be able to exhibit 'free will' (AI, right?). If you defined
dualistic as exhibiting free will, what is your metric of free
will? The two questions are entirely separate.
The question of time travel really gets more involved than
murdered grandfathers after just a little thought. The upshot of
which is that time could be just a figment of our imaginations.
Time, in the sense that we speak of it as passing, might just be
a neat trick that our brains pull. I am looking into readings
on the subject, and will forward what I find to anyone who is in-
terested.
--jcz
...duke!mcnc!jcz