[extropy-chat] Re: Structure of AI

Adrian Tymes wingcat at pacbell.net
Thu Nov 25 07:48:15 UTC 2004


--- Samantha Atkins <samantha at objectent.com> wrote:
> I do not agree with your reductionism.  I don't
> agree that everything 
> real is fully reducible to physics unless much of
> what is meaningful to 
> critters like us is lost in the process.

Physics and information theory, also known in part as
computer science.  Physics alone does not describe the
network effect of billions of neurons working
together, yet out of that we get something a lot more
than the effect of billions of isolated neurons.

There may also be other relevant disciplines, that
cover the rest of what is meaningful to us.

> In
> particular I don't 
> believe that lack of having come up with a test for
> "free will" means 
> that the existence of free will is in doubt.   I
> don't believe that all 
> that is real or important can be reduced to
> "testable physical 
> predicates".

If you think Eliezer's saying that's what I was
saying, then there has been a miscommunication
somewhere along the line.  The point is not that that
which is not testable is doubted to exist, but rather,
that which is not (yet) testable does not (yet)
matter when trying to determine the reality we live
in, so far as our ability to affect it is concerned.

There might be free will; there might not be free
will.  From our perspective, whether we choose our
next action or we just have the illusion of choosing
matters not in terms of understanding the universe -
at least, without some way for us to fully predict the
universe in advance based on the determinism that
exists.  There are times when it can be entertaining
to ponder such, but when it comes time to do anything
that affects the real world, such ponderings can be
identified and set aside to be re-examined later, to
see if there has yet arisen a way to answer the
question.

To deeply care about the answer to an unanswerable
question calls more for adjustment of the care than
for answering the unanswerable.  Although it may seem
otherwise, one's life is no less significant if free
will does not exist than if it does.



More information about the extropy-chat mailing list