Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,comp.ai,sci.philosophy.meta,alt.memetics
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!nntp.sei.cmu.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!peer-news.britain.eu.net!newsfeed.ed.ac.uk!dcs.ed.ac.uk!bute.dcs.ed.ac.uk!bjm
From: bjm@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Bruce McAdam)
Subject: Re: Free Will
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: bute.dcs.ed.ac.uk
Message-ID: <DL9upF.4yH.0.staffin.dcs.ed.ac.uk@dcs.ed.ac.uk>
Sender: bjm@bute.dcs.ed.ac.uk (Bruce McAdam)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh
X-Newsreader: xrn 8.00
References: <4d35vq$o6q@ixnews3.ix.netcom.com> <4d3lip$5p4@hpindda.cup.hp.com> <4d3qo1$ko9@hpindda.cup.hp.com>,<1996Jan12.031550.20196@media.mit.edu> <4d616r$b8@hammer.msfc.nasa.gov>,<4d6c8d$913@hpindda.cup.hp.com> <4d6rge$jdv@hammer.msfc.nasa.gov> <4dc6hs$bqa@sydney1.world.net> <4ddksd$evj@cloner3.netcom.com> <4df6d1$ei@imp.fl.net.au>
Distribution: inet
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 11:32:01 GMT
Lines: 27
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai.philosophy:36676 comp.ai:35967 sci.philosophy.meta:23183

In article <4df6d1$ei@imp.fl.net.au>, Kevin Kirchman <kirchman@fl.net.au> writes:
> Give a computer a set of 'values' that guide its actions, and it will act 
> in accordance with those values. Humans differ here in that they do not 
> necessarily act in consonance with their own ethical values. They may have
> contradictory values, in which case they may flip a coin, for instance, or
> go into stress. They may decide that they haven't free will, and justify
> their unethical behaviour this way. Or they may decide that they have free
> will, and form the habit of doing the right thing when it counts. 

The moral laws by which a person (hopefully) tries to lead their life are not
analogous to the low level laws in the computer.

Ethics are high level macroscopic and generalised, e.g. people generally act
altruistically (sp?) to their friends but not always.  The determined laws that
govern the brain are at a much lower level and act without our knowledge (hence
the confusion in the previous article) giving the apperance of free will.

If we knew all about a person's brain and its environment then we should be
able to predict its behaviour in much the same way as we can predict the behaviour
of a computer.

-- 
   ___          ___     Bruce J. McAdam
__/__ \__    __/__ \___ Computer Science Undergraduate
_____|_| \__/_____| |__ The University of Edinburgh
  \____| |_____| |_/    bjm@dcs.ed.ac.uk
     \___/  \___/       http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~bjm/
