Irrational number? Are 'angels' rational? if not you cannot count them anyway. JM
On Mon, Jun 9, 2014 at 9:59 PM, LizR <lizj...@gmail.com> wrote: > Ah yes, that gives us another definition - the ability to do things that > aren't optimal / rational. I knew there were more definitions lurking > around, probably a lot of them! > > (Plus we have yet to decide how many angels can dance on a pinhead. I'm in > favour of an irrational number...) > > > On 10 June 2014 13:42, Russell Standish <li...@hpcoders.com.au> wrote: > >> On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 12:49:01PM +1200, LizR wrote: >> > Depends what you mean by "free will". >> > >> > Reasoning based on past experience is one good definition (by which >> > criterion a computer can have free will too, and without being >> conscious). >> > >> > Another good definition is "first person unpredictability" (not knowing >> > what you will do next). >> > >> > Presumably random noise in the brain will influence a random decision >> (i.e. >> > one where there is no reason to prefer one outcome over another). That >> > appears to be what is happening in this experiment. I'm not sure if >> > everyone would agree this is "free will". >> > >> >> I don't everybody will ever agree about "free will". Whilst I don't >> fully agree with JC that "free will" is a meaningless string of ASCII >> characters, I would agree that a lot of "hot air" is generated about >> free will. >> >> I personally don't think rationality makes for a good definition of free >> will. A perfectly rational being is constrained to always choose the >> optimal course of action. Such a will can hardly be "free". >> >> -- >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 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 >> >> Latest project: The Amoeba's Secret >> (http://www.hpcoders.com.au/AmoebasSecret.html) >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> -- >> 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/d/optout. >> > > -- > 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/d/optout. > -- 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/d/optout.
