The "in principle" is really a social qualifier.   What it would look like to 
meaningful talk about or analyze free will?   In absence of an agreement about 
acceptable metaphysics, concepts like punishment lack any substance.  It is 
just stuff people with power do to people with less power.

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of jon zingale
Sent: Friday, April 2, 2021 2:00 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Free Will in the Atlantic

Along similar lines as DaveW, I make no case for *free will*. I wish to point 
out where metaphysical appeals are introduced in the process of establishing 
determinism. It appears to me that ours is one where we need to wait for the 
future to happen before we can account for it. Whenever we guess correctly, we 
are impressed or amazed by the accuracy of the prediction. The universe hasn't 
unfolded and so we create models that, rather than *anticipating* the arrival 
of phenomenal differences, perpetually update priors post hoc. 

Objects, themselves, are defined by what one can think to do with them. As the 
universe unfolds, all objects are rewritten. A trained model may be determined, 
but whether training itself is determined is what is at stake. A metaphysical 
assumption is made when we posit the existence of a global state of affairs, 
one that we know we cannot know. The *in principle* brackets the undecidability 
associated with determining the actual function, while still not providing a 
satisfactory mechanism accounting for the changes we must introduce to the 
determination of said function. Faith in the existence of such a function is a 
fine metaphysical belief.



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