Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!purdue!decwrl!ucbvax!MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA!bwk
From: bwk@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest
Subject: Re: AIList V6 #87 - Queries, Causal Modeling, Texts
Message-ID: <31039@linus.UUCP>
Date: 6 May 88 01:12:12 GMT
References:  <8805051701.AA29480@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort)
Organization: International Teleport and Telepath, Beantown, Mass.
Lines: 26
Keywords: Value System, Random Choice, Modeling, Learning, Evolution
Summary: How to instill Free Will in a machine.
Approved: ailist@kl.sri.com
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!purdue!decwrl!ucbvax!MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA!bwk
From: bwk@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest
Subject: Re: AIList V6 #87 - Queries, Causal Modeling, Texts
Message-ID: <31039@linus.UUCP>
Date: 6 May 88 01:12:12 GMT
References:  <8805051701.AA29480@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort)
Organization: International Teleport and Telepath, Beantown, Mass.
Lines: 26
Keywords: Value System, Random Choice, Modeling, Learning, Evolution
Summary: How to instill Free Will in a machine.

Spencer Star asks:

	(1) What is free will for a machine?
	(2) Please provide a test that will determine
	    if a machine has free will. The test should
	    be quantitative, repeatable, and unambiguous.

I suggest the following implementation of Free Will, which I believe
would engender behavior indistinguishable from a sentient being
with Free Will.

1)  Imbue the machine with a Value System.  This will enable the machine
    to rank by preference or utility the desirability of the anticipated
    outcomes of pursuing alternative courses of action.

2)  Provide a random choice mechanism for selecting among equal-valued
    alternatives.

3)  Allow the Value System to learn from experience.

4)  Seed the Value System with a) the desire to survive and b) the desire
    to construct accurate maps of the state-of-affairs of the world
    and accurate models for predicting future states-of-affairs from a
    given state as a function of possible actions open to the machine.

--Barry Kort