SUTHERS@cs.umass.EDU (06/17/88)
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 88 23:37 EDT
From: SUTHERS%cs.umass.edu@RELAY.CS.NET
Subject: Why I hope Aaron HAS disposed of the Free Will issue
To: AIList-REQUEST@mc.lcs.mit.edu
X-VMS-To: IN%"AIList-REQUEST@mc.lcs.mit.EDU",SUTHERS
Just a few years ago, I would have been delighted to be able to
participate in a network discussion on free will. Now I skip over
these discussions in the AIList. Why does it seem fruitless?
Many of the arguments seem endless, perhaps because they are arguments
about conclusions rather than assumptions. We disagree about
conclusions and argue, while never stating our assumptions. If
we did the latter, we'd find we simply disagree, and there would
be nothing to argue about.
But Aaron Sloman has put his finger on the pragmatic side of why
these discussions (though engaging for some), seem to be without
progress. Arguments about generic, undefined categories don't impact
on *what we do* in AI: the supposed concept does not have an image
in the design decisions we must make in building computational models
of interesting behaviors.
So in the future, if these discussions must continue, I hope that
the participants will have the discipline to try to work out how
the supposed issues at stake and their positions on them impact
on what we actually do, and use examples of the same in their
communications as evidence of the relevancy of the discussion.
It is otherwise too easy to generate pages of heated discussion
which really tell us nothing more than what our own prejudices are
(and even that is only implicit). -- Dan Suthers