Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!nbires!ncar!ames!necntc!linus!mbunix!bwk
From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Free Will & Self Awareness
Message-ID: <31408@linus.UUCP>
Date: 9 May 88 21:05:14 GMT
References: <770@onion.cs.reading.ac.uk> <1177@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <1179@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <940@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> <1182@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Kort)
Distribution: comp
Organization: International Teleport & Telepath, Beantown, Mass.
Lines: 19
Keywords: randomness responsibility
Summary: Choosing Win-Win

Perhaps it would help if I offered a straw proposal for invoking one's
free will in a specific situation.

Assume that I possess a value system which permits me to rank my
personal preferences regarding the likely outcome of the courses
of action open to me.  Suppose, also, that I have a (possibly crude)
estimate of your value system.  If I were myopic (or maybe just stupid)
I would choose my course of action to maximize my payoff without regard
to you.  But my knowledge of your value system creates an interesting
opportunity for me.  I can use my imagination to conceive a course
of action which increases both of our utility functions.  Free will
empowers me to choose a Win-Win alternative.  Without free will, I am
predestined to engage in acts that hurt others.  Since I disvalue hurting
others, I thank God that I am endowed with free will.

Is there a flaw in the above line of reasoning?  If so, I would be
grateful to someone for pointing it out to me.

--Barry Kort