wlieberm@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (William Lieberman) (05/18/88)
Consider this scenario. Person 1 is determined to demonstrate to Person 2 that Person 2 does not always have the free will Person 2 thinks he has. Person 1 asks Person 2 to make up his mind about which of two doors to go through, and spices up the situation by telling Person 2 that all sorts of coercion will be used by Person 1 on Person 2 to influence Person 2's ultimate choice of which door to go through. Person 2 rises to the challenge and feels strongly that no amount of coercion will influence his free choice of which door to choose. Ultimately, Person 2 chooses one of the doors, and turns to Person 1 and says, " I have made my free choice, and you have not influenced it a bit." Person 1 replies, " My choice was to get you to get deeply involved in thinking about which door to choose. I helped determine your interest in this problem. Your very attention to this problem was influenced by my desire to, in some real aspect, at least, determine your course of attention and thoughts, and this I have done. Your "free will" was not independent of my deliberate actions. Thus, I have demonstrated, even to you, at least some of the mental activity you engage in, while you feel under no outside control, is actually controlled by some other thinking being."