Keith Elis <hagbard@ix.netcom.com> asked:
> What is free-will?
Free-will is an emergent property of the human brain. (in the same way that
*weather* is an emergent property of energy distribution in the earth's
atmosphere) It is the name I (and others) give to the ability to change
our actions and beliefs, CONSCIOUSLY. Whether we have free-will or not has
been a long standing question, I was just advancing a theory about how we
might *end* the debate by PROVING we possess free-will. Of course, one
would need to be much more formal about it if you really want to convince
anyone you've *proved* it!
> And if you think we have it, why can't it be programmed
> into a robot?
It can be. The reason that I qualified "a robot (e.g. a being without
freewill)" is that I beleive ultimatly we will be able to "program" robots
with freewill. (as an aside, I think that "program" has the wrong
connotations for this activity -- something more like bestow the capability
is more inline) Anyway, I just wanted to consider robots without it to
demonstrate how I think creativity could be used to argue that humans
*MUST* possess free-will.
> The brain is a computer. All evidence points away from a soul. And the
> mind? Well that's what the brain does.
I would maintain that the brain is *different* from a computer -- it is
much more similar to a neutal net. (or any other vast assembledge of
connections *IN PARALLEL*) But that aside, you are right. The mind is
what the brain does.
ERiC