Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!leah!bingvaxu!sunybcs!dmark
From: dmark@cs.Buffalo.EDU (David Mark)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Free will and responsibility.
Keywords: randomness
Message-ID: <6025@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 22 May 89 11:18:30 GMT
References: <10333@ihlpb.ATT.COM> <3850@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <52019@linus.UUCP> <1309@lzfme.att.com> <1966@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu> <528@orawest.UUCP> <1979@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu> <53788@linus.UUCP>
Reply-To: dmark@sunybcs.UUCP (David Mark)
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Geography
Lines: 34

In article <53788@linus.UUCP> bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort) writes:
>
>       ....  I have a Value System, which I consult when making
>decisions.  But occasionally ...  I choose at random (rolling the
>dice if necessary).
>
>Literature is full of references to arbitrary choices.  The short
>story, "The Lady or the Tiger?" and the parable of Buridan's Ass
>both speak to the dilemma of choosing between two alternatives
>with no clear preference.  Casting lots is a venerable solution
>to such undetermined choices.
>
>>	   2) Without this convincing evidence reasonable people can
>>		  reasonably disagree about this...
>
>Are you now convinced that at least one living mind is not completely
>determined?  (Feel free to be reasonable, if you so choose.)
>

First, I think that Physics 101 would tell you that the behvior of
dice or coins in completely deterministic.  It's just that most humans
do not have the motor skills that would be needed to control that
determinism, and throw dice such that they land a certain way.

Second, it seems somewhat paradozical that the way you think you can
demonstrate that you have free will is to say that you sometimes
behave randomly!

I think a model that says the brain (and hence the mind) is completely
deterministic, but the determining factors are usually quite un-knowable,
is most appropriate.

David Mark
dmark@cs.buffalo.edu