By coincidence, I recently came across the following quote from Roger Penrose's paper “Beyond the Doubting of a Shadow - A Reply to Commentaries on Shadows of the Mind”.
Offered without comment. I just thought it was interesting: == What kind of a theory might it be that determines these choices? Many people who are unhappy with computationalism would be just as unhappy with any other type of mathematical scheme for determining them. For they might argue that it is here that "free will" makes its entry, and they would be unhappy that their free-will choices could be determined by any kind of mathematics. My own view would be to wait and see what kind of non-computable scheme ultimately emerges. Perhaps a sophisticated enough mathematical scheme will turn out not to be so incompatible with our (feelings of) free will. However, McCarthy takes the view that I am "quite confused" about free will, and that my ideas are "not repairable". I am not really clear about which of my confused ideas McCarthy is referring to. In Shadows, I did not say much about the issue of free will, except to raise certain issues. Indeed, I am not at all sure what my views on the subject actually are. Perhaps that means that I am confused, but I do not see that these ideas are remotely well enough defined to be irreparable! == Rex -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
