From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!rutgers!news.cs.indiana.edu!syscon!don Mon Aug 24 15:41:14 EDT 1992
Article 6649 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: don@syscon.rn.com (Don McLane)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Freewill, chaos and digital systems
Message-ID: <1992Aug19.144240.8058@syscon.rn.com>
Date: 19 Aug 92 14:42:40 GMT
References: <Bt4xt1.MA0.1@cs.cmu.edu> <702@trwacs.fp.trw.com>
Organization: Syscon Corporate Headquarters - South Bend, IN USA
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erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com (Harry Erwin) writes:

>rudis+@cs.cmu.edu (Rujith S DeSilva) writes:

>>(1) Does freewill arise solely through the mechanism of chaos?

>All the answers you'll get on this one will be speculative. I suspect
>chaos is part of it, but not all.

I was just thinking about this, so here's my speculation: I think the
feeling of freewill may arise from our disconnectedness with the
past.  The past doesn't seem to determine us; we feel like
autonomous agents.  But, if the world is chaotic, our present
mental state is the result of uncountable insignificant details.
We can't trace the causal chain backwards, so we feel free.

So, I say yes, the feeling (illusion?) of freewill arises solely
through the mechanism of chaos.

		   ---Don


