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Mr Michael Bibby wrote: >> Donald Hamilton wrote: >>> How Human Imagination Effects our "FREE WILL". >>> >>> "Free Will" is our basic human right to make a decision one way or >>> the other BUT the animal (genetic & hormones) and human influences >>> (cultural, religious, political, etc) that are ingrained in our >>> psyche pretty much decide the way we will think and act. Most >>> people will live within the constraints of their religion and >>> society but some will not and risk suffering the consequences what >>> ever they may be (great or small). >>> >>> How much of a "free will" do people really have? Are we free to make >>> decisions without being influenced by outside or physical and mental >> >>> constraints? >> >> We don't have free will in the sense that there is a true "ME" that >> can make our own decisions. We can generate effects that are not >> casually related to out meme and gene programming, but "we" don't >> have control over it. Its an internal random generator. >> >> The Mean Meme-Gene Darwinian Machine. > > You have much faith in your model. It seems to work, > To me, in the praxis of living, in > the 'here-and-now', from a phenomenological standpoint, it really > does 'seem' to me as though I do have a choice (i.e., that I could > have chosen otherwise). Yes, to all intents and purposes it seems that way, and that is how, imo, one must live ones life. . Of course you could argue, as many have done > before you, that this is merely an 'illusion' that manifests itself > at the phenomenological level, at the experiential interface, but > this position seems rather strange when one considers that the only > thing we have access to are 'appearances' (at the phenomenological > level) and not 'things-in-themselves' (as they really are > independently of our means and ways of experiencing them). I agree that, to date, we can't measure the our "free will trait generater", decribed http://www.anasoft.co.uk/replicators/specialreplicators.html But, by assumption, I don't believe in magic. Therefore, there must be something physical generating ideas. In principle, with sufficient technology, one might be able to identify some physical structures that generate those traits. The difficulty is that it is spread all over the brain, no one part on its own does the job. Its a combined effect, that is not localisable. >In effect, > you have rationalized away your free will with a creative fiction, > but you seem to have forgotten that the stories we tell ourselves are > the 'free creations of the human mind', Indeed. A very useful concept to use in practise, although an illusion. > that is, you have *chosen* > away your free will without even realizing that this is itself a > *free-choice* in so far as 'you could have chosen otherwise'... Not really. I don't see my choice as being free at all. I am forced to my conclusions by observed facts. I observe variation, selection and replication, and conclude that that is all that is required to explain behaviour. Its not a choice I want to make. I would much rather believe that I can live forever in a heaven. The facts say otherwise. I copy here my take on this: http://www.anasoft.co.uk/replicators/specialreplicators.html *********** Freewill Trait Generator It is suggested that the traits generated by the Trait Generator of the Intelligent Replicator, may be identified as a key component of the perceived freewill of a Conscious Replicator. Arguably: Definition - Freewill, is an internally generated trait of a Replicator, that is not deterministically derived from the external or internal environment. However, in reality, it will be held that there is no real "me", we are just a result of all our memetic and genetic programming. So, although we can be perceived as something that truly generates new ideas, there is no true "me" that has any control over them. *********** Kevin Aylward [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.anasoft.co.uk SuperSpice, a very affordable Mixed-Mode Windows Simulator with Schematic Capture, Waveform Display, FFT's and Filter Design. http://www.anasoft.co.uk/replicators/index.html "Understanding" itself requires consciousness, therefore consciousness cannot be "understood" without referring to itself for the explanation, therefore the "hard problem" of consciousness, is intrinsically unsolvable as it is self referral.
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