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From: hsf@hlexa.UUCP (Henry Friedman)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Misuse of "random" in free will discussions
Message-ID: <4177@hlexa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Apr-85 10:10:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: hlexa.4177
Posted: Tue Apr 30 10:10:08 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 1-May-85 03:55:52 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Short Hills, NJ
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It seems that the term "random" is being misused in these discussions
about free will.  Random is not the same as probabilistic.

In the information processing model of behavior, one's behavior is
a product of multiple inputs (genetic/instinctual, environmental,
the specific sensory stimuli, etc.).  If we assume that behavior is
absolutely determined, then at any point of "decision" about what
action to take, the action is, in principle, 100% probable (to
a theoretical observor who knows the initial conditions and causal
laws).

In a nondeterministic version, behavior at any point is a probability
distribution.  But saying that some actions are more probable than others
is not at all the same as saying that the action is random.

Also, whether deterministic or not, behavior is DETERMINATE, or fixed
in spacetime (even though we can't predict it prior to its occurrence).

There is the further possibility, in the nondeterministic model, that
ALL probablilistic decision branches do occur--in different branches
of the "many worlds" version of reality.

--Henry Friedman