From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!mp.cs.niu.edu!rickert Mon Aug 24 15:41:33 EDT 1992
Article 6671 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Subject: Re: Freewill, chaos and digital systems
Message-ID: <1992Aug21.014331.31743@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
References: <Bt4xt1.MA0.1@cs.cmu.edu> <1992Aug19.210204.29868@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1992Aug20.223414.26094@spss.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 01:43:31 GMT
Lines: 36

In article <1992Aug20.223414.26094@spss.com> markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder) writes:
>
>Perhaps the question is whether the decision-making process we feel we go
>through has any meaning or effect?  My own opinion is that it does--
>in fact, that part of the whole purpose of consciousness is this
>process of mental simulation and choice.  However, I also think we're not
>set up for very insightful analysis of our own cognition, and that we're
>not as free as we think we are.  We can see the unfreedom in *other* people's
>decision-making; there we call it "prejudice"!

I do agree that the array of choices we see is real, but that we are
much more constrained than we are willing to believe in the choices we
can actually make.  Our culture, our upbringing, etc, are very effective
in conditioning our choices.  We are much more subject to "brain washing"
than we would like to believe.  Education does change behavior and not
just convey factual information.  The media are very influential on our
behavior, although most of us would say that we ourselves are immune
but we can see the effects on most other people.  [And, of course, in
this electioneering season, let us not forget that political speeches
are designed not to inform, but to change our voting behavior.]

I guess that paragraph above sounds terribly cynical, although it was
not so intended.

>Or perhaps we're asking if our decision-making process is externally 
>predictable?  Here I think there are good physical reasons to say no:
>not only does quantum unpredictability affect our brain, but the
>impossibility of ascertaining or replicating the initial conditions
>derails our simulation device.

I suspect you don't even need quantum effects for this.  The complexity
is so high, that a prediction is computationally infeasible.  And, in
a Heisenberg-like manner, the attempt to gain the information to do the
computation will very likely cause enough disturbance to significantly
change the outcome.



