[ExI] Whistling past the graveyard

[John Clark]

On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 6:30 PM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
 wrote:


> ​> ​
> I cannot answer the question about Einstein without taking a stand on free
> will.​
>
>

​Tell me what on earth the phrase "free will" means and I'll tell you what
my stand on it is.​



> ​> ​
> The computer cannot do otherwise than what it was programmed to do.
>

​Yes it can, cosmic rays and random quantum fluctuations exist; when their
machines are effected by  ​those things people call them "glitches",
perhaps the machines
 calls it "free will"​ but as I don't know what the term means I can't be
sure.


> ​> ​
> There is no human parallel to this,
>

​
Not true. Humans are in exactly the same boat as computers because of one
of the most fundamental laws of logic,
​ ​
X is Y OR X is not Y.
​  ​
Everything that both humans and computers do happens because of cause and
effect and thus is deterministic OR it does not happen because of cause and
effect and thus is random. That is after all what "random" means.


> ​> ​
> unless you want to go down to the level of DNA and say that it is
> responsible for all that we do since it programmed us to learn.  If you
> want to look at it this way, then we are indeed automatons.  And Einstein
> gets no credit;
>

​Einstein would still get the credit. A cuckoo clock is a automation but it
should get credit for doing a good job telling us the correct time, ​

​and automation or not Einstein
should get credit for doing a good job telling us
​ how spacetime works.​ Other people can and should get credit for making
us happy and we love them for it, still other people can and should get
credit (or responsibility) for making us miserable and we hate them for
that.

​> ​
> Free will exists because we hope we have it,
>

​Before we debate if we have free will or not or if it would be a nice
thing to have it might be wise to decide what the hell the term means.​


> ​> ​
> and we must assume it so that we can punish antisocial people.
>

​Of course we can and should punish ​
​criminals ​because society would collapse if we did not! I don't know what
that has to do with "free will" but that's not surprising as I have no idea
what "free will" means.

 John K Clark
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