On Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 01:41:08AM -0600, Jason Resch wrote: > > > On Jan 19, 2014, at 12:04 AM, Russell Standish > <li...@hpcoders.com.au> wrote: > > >On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 10:38:28PM -0600, Jason Resch wrote: > >>Russell, > >> > >>What are your thoughts regarding > >>compatibilism<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibilism>? > >>Do you consider it a cop-out? > >> > >>Jason > >> > > > >I think it largely irrelevant, as it is clear we don't live in a > >deterministic world. > > If many worlds is true, then the equations we obey are > deterministic. We just iterate deterministically over all the > possible outcomes. If this is the case, then I think compatibilism > once again becomes relevant. > > Also, if minds are implemented above the level where quantum > randomness plays a major factor then again determinism in the > context of decision making becomes relevant. > > How do you define free will? Do you think it is something that would > be impossible within a fully deterministic universe? > > Thanks, > > Jason >
Its the ability to do something stupid, ie take the nonrational course. This could be achieved in a deterministic world, I suppose, using a pseudo RNG, but unless it is cryptographically strong, there is little point. But in any case, we do not live in a deterministic world (its true that we live in a deterministic multiverse, but the individual worlds are not), so we have genuine randomness to exploit for free will, creativity and so on. Cheers -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
