[ExI] Free Will vs. Determinism

Bryan Bishop kanzure at gmail.com
Wed Mar 12 18:14:06 UTC 2008


On Wednesday 12 March 2008, citta437 at aol.com wrote:
> Hi, concepts of "Free Will" vs. "Determinism" are merely concepts of
> duality. The advent of thoughts/language serve to define as well as

I do not see it as an issue of duality ("mind-brain" silly stuff). I 
know that the brain is implemented on matter/energy and where it is.

> divide/categorize the organic and inorganic world for instance for
> the advantage of one who desires to live longer.

What?

> Organic living things depend on the inorganic elements to live so
> where is free will there when one is dependent on something that

How about emergence? Starting with cellular automata rules, you cannot 
implicitly determine the specific structures that will emerge from a 
starting configuration. 

> appears unconscious like rocks and minerals or atoms and molecules?

Funny, my neurons process virtually all my conciousness but none of them 
are concious of anything at all. You seem to agree that consciousness 
is not some magical sauce, right?

> Does this mean the processes of nature {genes and environment}
> determine man's behavior?

Man is not so separate from nature as you might think.

> Like it or not, there is no free will. 

And what if you are wrong? It's best to maximize your behaviors as if 
you had free will, otherwise you lose out (this is a modified Pascal's 
wager, without the religious undertones). 

- Bryan
________________________________________
Bryan Bishop
http://heybryan.org/



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