Jim Bromer wrote:
On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 3:53 PM, Charles Hixson
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
At this point I think it relevant to bring in an assertion from Larry Niven
(Protector):
Paraphrase: When you understand all the consequences of an act, then you
don't have free will. You must choose the best decision. (For some value
of best.)
If this is correct, then Free Will is either an argument over probabilities,
or over "best"...which could reasonably be expected to differ from entity to
entity.
That is interesting, I never considered that before.
I think that free-will has to be defined relatively. So even though
we cannot transcend anyway we want to we still have free-will relative
to the range of possibilities that we do have. And this range is too
great to be comprehended except in the terms of broad generalizations.
So the choices that an future AGI program can make should not be and
cannot be dismissed before hand.
Free will can differ from entity to entity but I do not think a
working definition can be limited to probabilities or over what is
'best'.
Jim Bromer
I agree with you, but I think that it likely this is due to the fact
that one cannot know ALL the consequences of any choice. If one did,
then I suspect that free will *would* be limited to *best*. E.g., the
best move in a game may not be the move that gives one the highest
probability of winning the game when one considers, e.g., social
factors. Thus by considering wider consequences, the evaluation of
best changes, but one still chooses a best move, for some definition of
best.
In most situations this is further limited because one CAN'T know all of
the consequences. So one makes probability calculations weighting
things not only by probability of occurrence, but also by importance.
So different individuals disagree not only on the definition of best,
but also on the weights given to the potential outcomes.
If "free will" has any other components, what do you think they are?
-------------------------------------------
agi
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/
Modify Your Subscription:
https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=108809214-a0d121
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
