I haven’t read it yet but “this impossible question is fully and completely dissolved on Less Wrong”.
I do believe that free will is true, or rather a useful terminology, given my own definition.
‘Free will’ is often defined as want free FROM cause. But why shouldn’t ‘free will’ be defined as want free TO cause?
Any measure of ‘free will’ must be based on the effectiveness and feasibility of consciousness volition opposed to the strenght of the environmental influence. We have to fathom the extent of active adaption of the environment by a system opposed to passive adaption of a system by the the environment. The specific effectiveness and order of transformation by which the self-defined system (you) shapes the outside environment, in which it is embedded, must trump the environmental influence on the defined system. What is essential is that the system has to be goal-oriented and the ability to differentiate itself within the environment in which it is embedded.
What I mean is very simple. If I could get what I want I have had free will. In retrospect the degree of freedom of want is measured by the extent to which I had to adapt my will to environmental circumstances opposed to changing the environment to suit my goals. And basically this is what I mean by ‘free will’. To extent this notion of free will you can ‘measure’ the extent to which one changed his will deliberately, that is consciously, i.e. from within (nonlinear). By nonlinear here I mean a system whose output is not proportional to its input. This is opposed to the ‘persuasion’ of a child by an adult or the contrary affection of one’s will by unwanted, non-self-regulated influence of any kind.
(Edit Note: I’m not the usual highly educated LW reader. This might be a lot of garbage indeed. Ask me about it in a few years again.)
I’m saying that to talk about free will we first have to define what we mean by ‘free will’. Further I give a definition of what I mean, how I define the term ‘free will’. I define ‘free will’ as something universal that gradually exists on different levels. I define ‘free will’ as a measure of goal realization. That is, free will of a child < adult < superhuman artificial intelligence. Except if you are jailed, you might have less free will than a kid.
I believe that our feeling of being free agents represents the extrapolated and retrospective perception of goal realization and not what is talked about in metaphysics, that our intentions are free from cause. It’s rather that our ability to cause, to realize our intentions can be and is gradually perceived to be free.
I haven’t read it yet but “this impossible question is fully and completely dissolved on Less Wrong”.
I do believe that free will is true, or rather a useful terminology, given my own definition.
‘Free will’ is often defined as want free FROM cause. But why shouldn’t ‘free will’ be defined as want free TO cause?
Any measure of ‘free will’ must be based on the effectiveness and feasibility of consciousness volition opposed to the strenght of the environmental influence. We have to fathom the extent of active adaption of the environment by a system opposed to passive adaption of a system by the the environment. The specific effectiveness and order of transformation by which the self-defined system (you) shapes the outside environment, in which it is embedded, must trump the environmental influence on the defined system. What is essential is that the system has to be goal-oriented and the ability to differentiate itself within the environment in which it is embedded.
What I mean is very simple. If I could get what I want I have had free will. In retrospect the degree of freedom of want is measured by the extent to which I had to adapt my will to environmental circumstances opposed to changing the environment to suit my goals. And basically this is what I mean by ‘free will’. To extent this notion of free will you can ‘measure’ the extent to which one changed his will deliberately, that is consciously, i.e. from within (nonlinear). By nonlinear here I mean a system whose output is not proportional to its input. This is opposed to the ‘persuasion’ of a child by an adult or the contrary affection of one’s will by unwanted, non-self-regulated influence of any kind.
(Edit Note: I’m not the usual highly educated LW reader. This might be a lot of garbage indeed. Ask me about it in a few years again.)
I am sorry. I honestly find it very hard to understand what you are trying to say and more importantly why. Honestly, my fault but I don’t get it.
I’m saying that to talk about free will we first have to define what we mean by ‘free will’. Further I give a definition of what I mean, how I define the term ‘free will’. I define ‘free will’ as something universal that gradually exists on different levels. I define ‘free will’ as a measure of goal realization. That is, free will of a child < adult < superhuman artificial intelligence. Except if you are jailed, you might have less free will than a kid.
I believe that our feeling of being free agents represents the extrapolated and retrospective perception of goal realization and not what is talked about in metaphysics, that our intentions are free from cause. It’s rather that our ability to cause, to realize our intentions can be and is gradually perceived to be free.