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From: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Continuous Struggle
Message-ID: <368@psivax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Mar-85 13:33:55 EST
Article-I.D.: psivax.368
Posted: Mon Mar 18 13:33:55 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Mar-85 00:44:31 EST
References: <1099@decwrl.UUCP>
Reply-To: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley friesen)
Organization: Pacesetter Systems Inc., Sylmar, CA
Lines: 47
Summary: 

In article <1099@decwrl.UUCP> (John Williams 223-3402) writes:
>
>
>	A good definition of the differences between determinism 
>and free will is as follows:
>
>	Your mind is said to have free will because there is no 
>known way to hold a detailed description of the processes that 
>comprise it. That is, you are unable to construct an adequately 
>accurate model of your mind in your mind.
>
>	Something is called deterministic when you are able to 
>carry out a simulation to a reaonable degree of accuracy.
>
>	Thus, it becomes impractical to view the mind 
>deterministically. It quite simply does not have the capacity to 
>store an accurate model of itself. It quite simply can not carry 
>out a simulation that is accurate for the next five minutes, let 
>alone the next five years.
>
>	And I haven't even begun to touch upon the uncertainties 
>of the open environment in which the mind resides. There is no 
>means of taking enough into account.
>
>	In other words: The resolution of the types of things we 
>may say about the mind is still rather vague. I think you will 
>find that it isn't so much that free will is necessary for 
>intelligence, it is that free will is more apparent in 
>intelligence. That is, free will may be used as a rudamentary 
>measurement of intelligence, having some form of scaled value.
>That is, the more complex and unpredictable something is, the 
>more intelligent it is.
>
	But it has already been pointed out that free will is *not*
the same as unpredictability.  I go to the same place every Thur.
night - I am predictable in this regard, but I go because I *chose*
to do so over a year ago. That is I am predictable because my choice
was made *before* you began observation.  Free will does *not* mean
that I must make each decision at the same time as the action, I
cna, and often do, make the decision ahead of time, in which case
my behavior is predictable, but still free.
-- 

				Sarima (Stanley Friesen)

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