Xref: utzoo comp.ai:1944 talk.philosophy.misc:1091 sci.philosophy.tech:637
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!mit-amt!bc
From: bc@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (bill coderre)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,talk.philosophy.misc,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Free Will & Self-Awareness
Message-ID: <2619@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Date: 14 Jun 88 14:31:43 GMT
References: <8805151907.AA01702@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <445@aiva.ed.ac.uk> <463@aiva.ed.ac.uk> <306@proxftl.UUCP> <6268@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: bc@media-lab.media.mit.edu.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (squid disco)
Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge MA
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In article <6268@well.UUCP> sierch@well.UUCP (Michael Sierchio) writes:
>The debate about free will is funny to one who has been travelling
>with mystics and sages -- who would respond by saying that freedom
>and volition have nothing whatsoever to do with one another....

(this is gonna sound like my just previous article in comp.ai, so you
can read that too if you like)

Although what free will is and how something gets it are interesting
philosophical debates, they are not AI.

Might I submit that comp.ai is for the discussion of AI: its
programming tricks and techniques, and maybe a smattering of social
repercussions and philosophical issues.

I have no desire to argue semantics and definitions, especially about
slippery topics such as the above.

And although the occasional note is interesting (and indeed my
colleague Mr Sierchio's is sweet), endless discussions of whether some
lump of organic matter (either silicon- or carbon-based) CAN POSSIBLY
have "free will" (which only begs the question of where to buy some and
what to carry it in) is best confined to a group where the readership
is interested in such things.

Naturally, I shall not belabour you with endless discussions of neural
nets merely because of their interesting modelling of Real(tm)
neurons. But if you are interested in AI techniques and their rather
interesting approaches to the fundamental problems of intelligence and
learning (many of which draw on philosophy and epistemology), please
feel free to inquire.

I thank you for your kinds attention.....................mr bc