Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!its63b!aiva!jeff
From: jeff@aiva.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Free Will and Self-Awareness
Message-ID: <434@aiva.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 12 May 88 19:36:17 GMT
References: <8805092354.AA05852@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: jeff@uk.ac.ed.aiva (Jeff Dalton)
Organization: Dept. of AI, Univ. of Edinburgh, UK
Lines: 19

In article <8805092354.AA05852@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> eyal@COYOTE.STANFORD.EDU (Eyal Mozes) writes:
>all the evidence I'm familiar with points to the fact that it's
>always possible for a human being to control his thoughts by a
>conscious effort.

It is not always possible.  Think, if no simpler example will do, of
obsessives.  They have thoughts that persist in turning up despite
efforts to eliminate them.

Or, consider when you start thinking about something.  An idea just
occurs and you are thinking it: you might decide to think about
something, but you could not have decided to decide, decided to
decide to decide, etc. so at some point there was no conscious
decision.

Or just consider when you are thinking.  You cannot consciously shape
each thought before it comes.

-- Jeff