"R. Steve Walz" <rstevew@armory.com> wrote in message
news:409AF3DA.55E7@armory.com...
> Zagan wrote:
> >
> > "Wolfgang Lorenz" <wlorenz65@web.de> wrote in message
> > news:c705if$ihs$1@online.de...
> > > > Their first task would be to remove the biological
> > > > infestation from the third planet orbiting the
> > > > insignificant star called Sol.
> > >
> > > Intelligent robots will not carry out such a stupid order.
> >
> > [Zagan]
> > "Intelligent" robots does not imply "free-will" robots, so such
> > robots, while intelligent, may have no choice but to follow
> > instructions given to them.
> > // Jim
> -------------------------------------
> AI implies learning from experience, not programming, but they are
> really the same, in that this is NOT "free will".
>
> WE don't have free will either, because we cannot change our beliefs
> about anything without an external cause making us choose to do that,
> and then we cannot prevent ourselves from doing it either.

[Zagan]
We humans are not driven only by external causes, but internal processes as
well. I agree that our belief system "control" us to a great degree, but do
not agree that we cannot overcome external and internal "drives," and thus
have free will. We often do not exercise our free will, but it is there for
those with sufficient fortitude.

> We are beings of cause and effect, just like a robot, but we are
> self-aware in that our mind models us as a character in a story
> called Our Life, and when robots can do that as a means of analysis
> and planning to the degree we do it, then they will be self-aware
> just like we are.
>
> Still, there is NO such thing as supposed "Free Will".
> Our brain works by chemical cause and effect, and the
> causes are either external, or internal to our brain
> but still not precisely "ourself".

[Zagan]
Cause and effect is an idea central to classical physics. Quantum physics
has demonstrated that reality is governed by random processes. Cause and
effect is a result of probability. Certain things are very likely under the
rules of probability, and we may mistake this as cause and effect. Quantum
physics has also shown us that the outcome of an experiment is
observer-dependent. Some have suggested that these quantum properties are
the source of our consciousness. Since cause and effect is probabilistic
only, to me this suggest "free will."

BTW, I like your website!

Best Regards,
// Jim
-- 
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|| "The Keepers of Forever"
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> -Steve
> -- 
> -Steve Walz  rstevew@armory.com   ftp://ftp.armory.com/pub/user/rstevew
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