Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!bloom-beacon!oberon!sdcrdcf!trwrb!aero!venera.isi.edu!smoliar
From: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Free Will & Self Awareness
Message-ID: <5451@venera.isi.edu>
Date: 7 May 88 17:51:22 GMT
References: <770@onion.cs.reading.ac.uk> <1177@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <10942@sunybcs.UUCP> <31024@linus.UUCP>
Sender: news@venera.isi.edu
Reply-To: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu.UUCP (Stephen Smoliar)
Distribution: comp
Organization: USC-Information Sciences Institute
Lines: 18
Keywords: randomness responsibility

In article <31024@linus.UUCP> bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort) writes:
>
>It is not uncommon for a child to "spank" a machine which misbehaves.
>But as adults, we know that when a machine fails to carry out its
>function, it needs to be repaired or possibly redesigned.  But we
>do not punish the machine or incarcerate it.
>
>Why then, when a human engages in undesirable behavior, do we resort
>to such unenlightened corrective measures as yelling, hitting, or
>deprivation of life-affirming resources?
>
This discussion seems to be drifting from the issue of intelligence to that
of aggression.  I do not know whether or not such theses have gone out of
fashion, but I still subscribe to the hypothesis that aggression is "natural"
to almost all animal life forms, including man.  Is your adult self so
rational and mature that you have not so much as banged your fist on the
table when your software does something which particularly frustrates you
(or do you feel that adults also transcend frustration)?