AIList-REQUEST@AI.AI.MIT.EDU (AIList Moderator Nick Papadakis) (05/25/88)
Date: 9 May 88 01:32:40 GMT
From: pdn!ard@uunet.uu.net (Akash Deshpande)
Reply-to: AIList@AI.AI.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: Free Will & Self-Awareness [AIList Digest V7 #4]
Consider a vending machine that for $.50 vends pepsi, coke or oj. After
inserting the money you make a selection and get it. You are happy.
Now consider a vending machine that has choices pepsi, coke and oj, but
always gives you only oj for $.50. After inserting the money you make
a selection, but irrespective of your selection you get oj. You may feel
cheated.
Thus, the willed result through exercise of freedom of choice may not be
related to the actual result. The basic question of freewill is -
"Is it enough to maintain an illusion of freedom of choice, or should
the willed results be made effective?". The latter, I suppose.
Further consider the first (good) vending machine. While it was being
built, the designer really had 5 brands, but chose (freely, for whatever
reasons) to vend only the three mentioned. As long as I (as a user of the
vending machine) don't know of my unavailable choice space, I have the
illusion of a full freedom of choice. This is where awareness comes in.
Awareness expands my choices, or equivalently, lack of awareness creates
an illusion of freewill (since you cannot choose that which you do not
know of). Note that the designer of the vending machine controls the
freewill of the user.
Indian philosophy contends that awareness (=consciousness) is fundamental.
Freewill always exists and is commensurate with awareness. But freewill
is also an illusion when examined in the perspective of greater awareness.
Akash
--
Akash Deshpande Paradyne Corporation
{gatech,rutgers,attmail}!codas!pdn!ard Mail stop LF-207
(813) 530-8307 o Largo, Florida 34649-2826
Like certain orifices, every one has opinions. I haven't seen my employer's!
------------------------------AIList-REQUEST@AI.AI.MIT.EDU (AIList Moderator Nick Papadakis) (05/25/88)
Date: 9 May 88 16:28:40 GMT From: bwk@mitre-bedford.arpa (Barry W. Kort) Reply-to: AIList@AI.AI.MIT.EDU Subject: Re: Free Will & Self-Awareness [AIList Digest V7 #4] I was gratified to see Marty Brilliant's entry into the discussion. I certainly agree that an intelligent system must be able to evolve its knowledge over time, based information supplied partly by others, and partly by its own direct experience. Thomas Edison had a particularly rich and accurate knowledge base because he was a skeptic: he verified every piece of scientific knowledge before accepting it as part of his belief system. As a result, he was able to envision devices that actually worked when he built them. I think Minsky would agree that our values are derived partly from inheritance, partly from direct experience, and partly from internal reasoning. While the state of AI today may be closer to Competent Systems rather than Expert Systems, I see no reason why the field of AI cannot someday graduate to AW (Artificial Wisdom), in which an intelligent system not only knows something useful, it senses that which is worth knowing. --Barry Kort ------------------------------
AIList-REQUEST@AI.AI.MIT.EDU (AIList Moderator Nick Papadakis) (05/25/88)
Return-Path: <@AI.AI.MIT.EDU:ailist-request@ai.ai.mit.edu> Date: 10 May 88 13:44:44 GMT From: hpscad.dec.com!verma@decwrl.dec.com (Virendra Verma, DTN 297-5510, MRO1-3/E99) Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Subject: RE: Free Will & Self-Awareness Sender: ailist-request@ai.ai.mit.edu To: ailist@ai.ai.mit.edu >Consider a vending machine that for $.50 vends pepsi, coke or oj. After >inserting the money you make a selection and get it. You are happy. >Now consider a vending machine that has choices pepsi, coke and oj, but >always gives you only oj for $.50. After inserting the money you make >a selection, but irrespective of your selection you get oj. You may feel >cheated. >Thus, the willed result through exercise of freedom of choice may not be >related to the actual result. The basic question of freewill is - >"Is it enough to maintain an illusion of freedom of choice, or should >the willed results be made effective?". The latter, I suppose. >Further consider the first (good) vending machine. While it was being >built, the designer really had 5 brands, but chose (freely, for whatever >reasons) to vend only the three mentioned. As long as I (as a user of the >vending machine) don't know of my unavailable choice space, I have the >illusion of a full freedom of choice. This is where awareness comes in. >Awareness expands my choices, or equivalently, lack of awareness creates >an illusion of freewill (since you cannot choose that which you do not >know of). Note that the designer of the vending machine controls the >freewill of the user. >Akash It seems to me that you are mixing "free will" and "outcome". I think "free will" is probabilitically related to the "outcome". Isn't the essence of "law of karma" when Krashna mentions that you are free to exercise your will (i.e., the act of doing something which is karma element, "insertion of coins" is an act of free will in your example"). You have no control over the "results" element of your free will? The "awareness" element simply improves the probablity of the "outcome". Even in your first example with good machine, you may not get what you want because there may be a power failure right after you insert the coin!! - Virendra