On 8/5/2013 1:10 PM, David Makin wrote:
On 5 Aug 2013, at 18:27, meekerdb wrote:
Sure. Daniel Dennett makes that point when challenged to explain how a computer could have free will. He says it's very simple, first you program the computer to make intelligent decisions. And then you program it so that when it's asked how it arrived at a decision it says, "I have no idea. It's just what I wanted to do."
Brent
To me what that gives is the difference between a "conscious" decision and an unconscious one - one can describe at least in some way reasons why one came to a conscious decision or perform a conscious action but not for an unconscious one - for instance I decided to write this to add to the thread,
But if you try to push the explanation for your actions back very far, you come to "I just wanted to." I think the point of Dennett's example is that you *could* program the computer to keep a complete record of it's states so that it could answer the question explicitly - but then people wouldn't think it had 'free will'. Brent "Der Mensh Kann wohl tun, was er will, aber er kann nicht wollen, was er will." --- Schopenhauer
but I can't tell you how I keep my heart beating...or even how I can control my hand so easily to type this....
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