Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!linus!mbunix!bwk From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Free Will & Self Awareness Summary: A sentient being is inherently free to learn. Keywords: randomness responsibility sentience discovery Message-ID: <31572@linus.UUCP> Date: 11 May 88 15:21:39 GMT References: <770@onion.cs.reading.ac.uk> <1177@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <1182@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <948@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> Sender: news@linus.UUCP Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort) Distribution: comp Organization: IdeaSync, Inc., Chronos, VT Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!linus!mbunix!bwk From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Free Will & Self Awareness Summary: A sentient being is inherently free to learn. Keywords: randomness responsibility sentience discovery Message-ID: <31572@linus.UUCP> Date: 11 May 88 15:21:39 GMT References: <770@onion.cs.reading.ac.uk> <1177@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <1182@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <948@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> Sender: news@linus.UUCP Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort) Distribution: comp Lines: 8 I appreciated Richard O'Keefe's suggestion that free will is intimately related to the freedom to learn. This idea is consistent with the notion that one cannot create a sentient being without free will. Moreover, it is evidently unpredictable what a sentient being will in fact discover and learn in his/her/its lifetime. --Barry Kort