Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!linus!mbunix!bwk
From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Raising Consciousness
Summary: Let's get on with the race.
Keywords: philosophy, free will
Message-ID: <31865@linus.UUCP>
Date: 13 May 88 21:58:15 GMT
References: <29049@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort)
Organization: Protoplasmics Ltd., Cleft Chasm, NM
Lines: 26

I was heartened by Drew McDermot's well-written summary of the Free
Will discussion.

I have not yet been dissuaded from the notion that Free Will is
an emergent property of a decision system with three agents.

The first agent generates a candidate list of possible courses
of action open for consideration.  The second agent evaluates
the likely outcome of pursuing each possible course of action,
and estimates it's utility according to it's value system.  The
third agent provides a coin-toss to resolve ties.

Feedback from the real world enables the system to improve its
powers of prediction and to edit it's value system.

If the above model is at all on target, the decision system would
seem to have free will.  And it would not be unreasonable to hold
it accountable for its actions.

On another note, I think it was Professor Minsky who wondered
how we stop deciding an issue.  My own feeling is that we terminate
the decision-making process when a more urgent or interesting
issue pops up.  The main thing is that our decision making machinery
chews on whatever dilemma captures its attention.

--Barry Kort