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From: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Free will and responsibility.
Summary: Learning to handle tough situations
Keywords: Self-Protective Behaviors, Survival Strategies, Devils and Angels
Message-ID: <54737@linus.UUCP>
Date: 28 May 89 00:52:10 GMT
References: <10333@ihlpb.ATT.COM> <3850@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <52019@linus.UUCP> <533@orawest.UUCP> <2586@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu>
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Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort)
Organization: Garden Golems, Inc., Norbert, WI
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In article <386@edai.ed.ac.uk> cam@edai (Chris Malcolm) writes:

 >  ... in everyday living we normally suppose that those
 > whose actions are bizarrely unpredictable are nutcases
 > who have no free will, their actions being determined
 > by the unfathomable pathology of their illness, whereas
 > those whose actions are most predictable are those Good,
 > Sane, and Rational people who ALWAYS choose to do the
 > Right Thing by their well-known publicly-declared value
 > system.  In fact, the reason why I sometimes fail to
 > exercise my free choice to do the Right and Proper thing
 > is that I sometimes lose control of myself, and am overcome
 > by the determinism of some animal greed...

Yeah, that happens to me too.  Now and then my cerebral cortex
and my limbic system get into a contest and my rational mind
yields control to my pre-wired instincts.  The R-complex often
"gets there first."  But with enough cognitive processing, the
cerebrum eventually discovers a superior strategy, and reclaims
control.  The hardest contests to overcome are responses to
those stimuli which trigger the deepest fears.

--Barry Kort