Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!oodis01!uplherc!sp7040!obie!wsccs!dharvey
From: dharvey@wsccs.UUCP (David Harvey)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: More Free Will
Summary: If we are choosing what to do we must be making
	 a lot of mistakes
Message-ID: <532@wsccs.UUCP>
Date: 16 May 88 23:06:34 GMT
References: <3200017@uiucdcsm>
Lines: 56

In article <3200017@uiucdcsm>, channic@uiucdcsm.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
> ... 
> Since it can't be denied, let's go one step further.  Free will has created
> civilization as we know it.  People, using their individual free wills,
> chose to make the world the way it is.  Minsky chose to write his book,
> I chose to disagree, someone chose to design computers, plumbing, buildings,
> automobiles, symphonies and everything that makes life enjoyable.
> Our reality is our choice, the product of our free will operating on our
> value system.
> ...
If free will has created civilization as we know it, then it must be
accepted with mixed emotions.  This means that Hitler, Stalin, some of
the Catholic Popes during the middle ages and others have created a
great deal of havoc that was not good.  One of the prime reasons for AI
is to perhaps develop systems that prevent things like this from
happening.  If we with our free will (you said it, not me) can't seem to
create a decent world to live in, perhaps a machine without free will
operating within prescribed boundaries may do a better job.  We sure
haven't done too well.
>
> ...................... I believe all people, especially leading
> scientific minds, have the wisdom to use their undeniable free will
						^^^^^^^^^^^^
> to making choices in values which will promote world harmony. ...
> ...
> Free will explained as an additive blend of determinism and chance
> directly attacks the concept of individual responsibility.  Can any
> machine, based on this theory of free will, possibly benefit society
> enough to counteract the detrimental effect of a philosophy which
> implies that we aren't accountable for our choices?
> ...
> 
> 
> Tom Channic
> University of Illinois
> channic@uiucdcs.cs.uiuc.edu
> {decvax|ihnp4}!pur-ee!uiucdcs!channic


You choose to believe that free will is undeniable.  The very fact that
many people do deny it is sufficient to prove that it is deniable.  It
is like the existence of God;  impossible to prove, and either accepted
or rejected by each individual.
While it is rather disturbing (to me at least) that we may not be
responsible for our choices, it is even more disturbing that by our
choices we are destroying the world.  For heaven's sake, Reagan and
friends for years banned a Canadian film on Acid Rain because it was
political propaganda.  Never mind the fact that we are denuding forests
at an alarming rate.  To repeat, if we with our free will (you said it,
not me) aren't doing such a great job it is time to consider other
courses of action.  By considering them, we are NOT adopting them as
some religious dogma, but intelligently using them to see what will
happen.

David A Harvey
Utah Institute of Technology (Weber State College)
dharvey@wsccs