[extropy-chat] Role of MWI and Time Travel

[Russell Wallace]

On 5/25/06, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at tsoft.com> wrote:
>
> The nit I can pick with Russell's statement is this. If
> we take "physics" to mean "the basic rules of the world",
> then physics has everything to do with free will: what if,
> for example, physics were to include spiritual phenomena
> so that souls exist which may make uncaused decisions?


Who says the soul doesn't exist? There's no single universally agreed on
definition of the word, but if we define it as "that nonmaterial entity
which is the seat of consciousness and which could potentially survive death
of one's body", then it does indeed exist: it is the mind, the pattern of
information contained in the brain.

But irrespective of one's view on the nature of the soul, physics etc, I
claim that "uncaused decision" is an oxymoron. If I choose A, it is not a
decision unless another person in my place might have chosen B. Therefore
that I chose A is caused by the fact that I am me and not him (or, if one
zooms in to a finer level of detail, by the fact that I have this
disposition, goal, item of information etc and not that one). Therefore a
decision is not uncaused.

Then free will would exist in the everyday meaning of the
> term.


I will claim that my definition (which I'm glad you like, btw) _is_ the
everyday meaning of the term (and therefore that free will does exist in the
everyday meaning).
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