The algorithm has to assume many different possible actions as having been taken, and extrapolate their consequences, and then choose an action whose consequences match the goal … The algorithm, therefore, cannot produce an output without extrapolating the consequences of itself producing many different outputs.
It seems like you need to talk about our “internal state space”, not our internal algorithms—since as you pointed out yourself, our internal algorithms might never enumerate many possibilities (jumping off a cliff while wearing a clown suit) that we still regard as possible. (Indeed, they won’t enumerate many possibilities at all, if they do anything even slightly clever like local search or dynamic programming.)
Otherwise, if you’re not willing to talk about a state space independent of algorithms that search through it, then your account of counterfactuals and free will would seem to be at the mercy of algorithmic efficiency! Are more choices “possible” for an exponential-time algorithm than for a polynomial-time one?
The algorithm has to assume many different possible actions as having been taken, and extrapolate their consequences, and then choose an action whose consequences match the goal … The algorithm, therefore, cannot produce an output without extrapolating the consequences of itself producing many different outputs.
It seems like you need to talk about our “internal state space”, not our internal algorithms—since as you pointed out yourself, our internal algorithms might never enumerate many possibilities (jumping off a cliff while wearing a clown suit) that we still regard as possible. (Indeed, they won’t enumerate many possibilities at all, if they do anything even slightly clever like local search or dynamic programming.)
Otherwise, if you’re not willing to talk about a state space independent of algorithms that search through it, then your account of counterfactuals and free will would seem to be at the mercy of algorithmic efficiency! Are more choices “possible” for an exponential-time algorithm than for a polynomial-time one?