On 9/4/2013 9:58 AM, John Clark wrote:
If consciousness is fundamental, and I think it probably is, then after saying that consciousness is the way data feels when it is being processed there is simply nothing more to say on the subject, if there were then it wouldn't be fundamental.
I don't disagree with that, but while consciousness may just the data processing feels, there are obviously going to be different feelings about different data processing (e.g. hope, fear, lust,...) and not all data processing is going to produce these feelings (since we know our brains do a lot of data processing unconsciously). So I think the interesting question is which data processing goes with which feeling. If I make a robot that does processing X, what will it feel? And in the more specific case, what processing corresponds to will. I suspect that it corresponds to conflicts in some subprocesses such that they want different actions and the processes corresponding to conscious evaluations is triggered to resolve this. When there is no conflict, you just do the action "without thinking". So unfree will is when you perceive an external agent as coercing your decision. This is essentially the legal definition: free will = absence of coercion. This is a vague standard with a big gray area, but it is clear enough at the extremes.
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