Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!scs!spl1!laidbak!att!pacbell!lll-tis!oodis01!uplherc!sp7040!obie!wsccs!rargyle From: rargyle@wsccs.UUCP (Bob Argyle) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Free Will & Self Awareness Message-ID: <558@wsccs.UUCP> Date: 28 May 88 20:58:32 GMT Article-I.D.: wsccs.558 References: <770@onion.cs.reading.ac.uk> <1177@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <5323@xanth.cs.odu.edu> Distribution: comp Lines: 27 Summary: AI a place to test the freewill doctrine In article <5323@xanth.cs.odu.edu>, wet@xanth.cs.odu.edu (Warren E. Taylor) writes: [stuff deleted] > Adults understand what a child needs. A child, on his own, would quickly kill > himself. ... > Flame away. > Warren. so stop interferring with that child's free will! [W.C.Fields] :-) We genetically are programmed to protect that child (it may be a relative...); not so programmed however for protecting any computers running an AI program. AI seems the perfect place to test the freewill doctrine without the observer interferring with the 'experiment.' At least one contributor to the discussion has called for an end to AI because of the effects on impressionable undergraduates being told that there isn't any free will. Send Columbus out and if he falls off the edge, so much the better. IF we get some data on what 'free will' actually is out of AI, then let us discuss what it means. It seems we either have free will or we don't; finding out seems indicated after is it 3000 years of talk.vague. So is the sun orbitting around the earth? this impressionable undergraduate wants to see some hard data. Bob @ WSCCS