Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!ncar!boulder!sunybcs!bingvaxu!leah!rpi!batcomputer!cornell!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!ap1i+ From: ap1i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Andrew C. Plotkin) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Robots & free will (was Re: The limitations of logic) Message-ID: Date: 27 Jan 89 00:56:24 GMT References: <3328@sdsu.UUCP> <43228@linus.UUCP> <539@uceng.UC.EDU> <3550@ingr.com> <226@UNIX386.Convergent.COM> <1374@arctic.nprdc.arpa>, <9256@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>, Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 9 In-Reply-To: For the record, I checked my quantum-for-the-idiot book. According to the author (John Gribbin), I was wrong. The damn state function collapses if a measurement is made, even if the measurement is made by a mindless instrument and recorded on tape that's locked in a closet for ten years. In fact, it'll even collapse if a measurement is *going* to be made; and if you change your mind and turn off the instrument *after* the event but *before* the measurement, you'll find that the function outguessed you and didn't collapse... --Z