Bruno and John,
The confusion is my fault. I copied the URL from a
Kurzweil page heading when I should have gone to the article itself, so the
wrong feature appeared. This is the one I requested comments about:
http://www.physorg.com/news186830615.html
(Excerpts)
PhysOrg.com) -- When biologist Anthony Cashmore claims that the concept of free
will is an illusion, he's not breaking any new ground. At least as far back as
the ancient Greeks, people have wondered how humans seem to have the ability to
make their own personal decisions in a manner lacking any causal component
other than their desire to "will" something. But Cashmore, Professor of Biology
at the University of Pennsylvania, says that many biologists today still cling
to the idea of free will, and reject the idea that we are simply conscious
machines, completely controlled by a combination of our chemistry and external
environmental forces.
To put it simply, free will just doesn't fit with how the physical world works.
Cashmore compares a belief in free will to an earlier belief in vitalism - the
belief that there are forces governing the biological world that are distinct
from those governing the physical world. Vitalism was discarded more than 100
years ago, being replaced with evidence that biological systems obey the laws
of chemistry and physics, not special biological laws for living things."I
would like to convince biologists that a belief in free will is nothing other
than a continuing belief in vitalism (or, as I say, a belief in magic),"
Cashmore told PhysOrg.com.
There seems to be an evolutionary rightness and inevitability to the idea that
free will is taking its place as just another illusion like vitalism, religion,
aether, absolute time and space, geocentric universe, single-galaxy universe
and so on. But I think people will have an even tougher time dealing with the
implications of strict determinism. It's an idea that could tear through the
entire fabric of society even though acceptance needn't change one's behavior
in the slightest respect. marty a.
----- Original Message -----
From: m.a.
To: everything-list@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 3:42 PM
Subject: Re: Free will
Bruno,
ummm...I don't follow this answer. Does your reply affirm free will, deny it
or take some other tact? m.a.
----- Original Message -----
From: Bruno Marchal
To: everything-list@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 12:01 PM
Subject: Re: Free will
Marty,
With the MWI, superluminal computers are particular case of quantum
computer, as far as I guess correctly on what they are talking about. There is
no transmission of information at speed higher than light speed, but in a
single universe view, quantum weirdness exploitation (like quantum
teleportation) may make it appears to be so. Looks a bit like Marketing. If
someone know better. (here I assume QM, not comp, although comp should imply
QM).
Bruno
On 11 Mar 2010, at 15:03, m.a. wrote:
Bruno,
In the light of the article presented below, I'm trying to
remember whether you have committed yourself on this issue one way or another.
marty a.
http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=/news/news_single.html?id%3D11909--
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