Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!sri-spam!sri-unix!quintus!ok
From: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Free Will & Self-Awareness
Message-ID: <912@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Date: 29 Apr 88 01:26:02 GMT
References: <4134@super.upenn.edu> <3200014@uiucdcsm> <1484@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <1029@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk>
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA
Lines: 13

In article <1029@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk>, gilbert@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Gilbert Cockton) writes:
> For AI workers (not AI developers/exploiters who are just raiding the
> programming abstractions), the main problem they should recognise is
> that a rule-based or other mechanical account of cognition and decision
> making is at odds with the doctrine of free will which underpins most Western
> morality.

What about compatibilism?  There are a lot of arguments that free will is
compatible with strong determinism.  (The ones I've seen are riddled with
logical errors, but most philosophical arguments I've seen are.)
When I see how a decision I have made is consistent with my personality,
so that someone else could have predicted what I'd do, I don't _feel_
that this means my choice wasn't free.