Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!quintus!ok From: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Free Will & Self Awareness Message-ID: <939@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> Date: 7 May 88 02:31:52 GMT References: <770@onion.cs.reading.ac.uk> <1177@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <10942@sunybcs.UUCP> Distribution: comp Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA Lines: 20 Keywords: randomness responsibility In article <10942@sunybcs.UUCP>, sher@sunybcs (David Sher) writes: > It seems that people are discussing free will and determinism by > trying to distinguish true free will from random behavior. There is a > fundamental problem with this topic. Randomness itself is not well > understood. If you could get a good definition of random behavior you > may have a better handle on free will. In particular, consider the difference between _random_ behaviour and _chaotic_ behaviour. A phsyical system may be completely described by simple deterministic laws and yet be unpredictable in principle (unpredictable by bounded computational mechanisms, that is). [Pseudo-random numbers are really pseudo-chaotic.] > Consider this definition of random behavior: > X is random iff its value is unknown. I do not known David Sher's telephone number, but I do not find it useful to regard it as random (nor as chaotic). Conversely, when listening to a Geiger counter, I am quite sure whether or not I have heard a click, but I believe that the clicks are random events.