[FRIAM] Draft abstract

[Russ Abbott]

Thanks, Jochen. Two very interesting books.

The Amazon reviews of the Dennett-Caruso book range from 1 star to 5 stars!
The Amazon blurb on the book puts the focus on the implications of one's
views about Free Will for moral responsibility.

"Dennett argues that the kind of free will required for moral
responsibility is compatible with determinism – for him, self-control is
key; we are not responsible for becoming responsible, but are responsible
for staying responsible, for keeping would-be puppeteers at bay. Caruso
takes the opposite view, arguing that who we are and what we do is
ultimately the result of factors beyond our control, and because of this we
are never morally responsible for our actions in the sense that would make
us *truly deserving* of blame and praise, punishment and reward."
Undoubtedly an interesting discussion.

My concern is much less about moral responsibility than theirs. Moral
responsibility adds an additional layer to the discussion that makes
everything much muddier.

I once knew a very intelligent determinist who argued that punishment was
important nevertheless. It plays the same role as training for neural nets.
Even though the neural net mechanism is deterministic, it's useless without
training. Punishment, and more generally child-rearing and education serve
the same function for society. They make humans much more valuable members.
All that is fully compatible with determinism.

-- Russ Abbott
Professor, Computer Science
California State University, Los Angeles


On Sat, Mar 20, 2021 at 2:41 PM Jochen Fromm <jofr at cas-group.net> wrote:

> The idea of "autonomous causation" reminds me of our recent discussions
> about "free will". A red traffic light causes cars to stop but drivers can
> refuse to stop if they do not want to stop. They have the autonomy to break
> the chain of causality. If you want to go in this direction you can cite
> Daniel Dennett's new book "Just Deserts: Debating Free Will"
>
> https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Just+Deserts%3A+Debating+Free+Will-p-9781509545759
>
> For stigmergy in general I would recommend the work of Guy Theraulaz. His
> book "Swarm Intelligence: From Natural to Artificial Systems" is a classic.
> Do you know the books from Mark Moffett: "The human swarm" and "Adventures
> among ants" ? He is a scholar of E.O. Wilson and argues that symbols and
> markers are important to identify a social group.
>
> https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2020/01/of-ants-and-humans-some-principles-of-social-organization.html
>
> Symbols can also be used to identify a product. They have causal effects
> for example if they represent a brand. Brands increase the probability that
> a consumer recognizes and buys products of a certain brand. They distort
> perceptions by leaving invisible traces in our brains (for instance by
> linking certain products to certain attributes or emotions). Given the hype
> about AI and deep learning, one could ask if such adaptive systems can be
> manipulated by marketing techniques just like we are seduced by them.
>
> Good luck for your paper!
>
> -J.
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Russ Abbott <russ.abbott at gmail.com>
> Date: 3/20/21 19:51 (GMT+01:00)
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
>
> Subject: [FRIAM] Draft abstract
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm planning to submit an abstract to this conference
> <http://www.hapoc.org/node/329>. All they want is (a) a short abstract (<
> 200 words) and a long abstract (< 1000 words including references). Here's
> my draft
> <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vqio0TpUHfeDeqBWpr5KSJAW4h7u2YBD/view?usp=sharing>.
> Comments/suggested improvements would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks.
>
> -- Russ Abbott
> Professor, Computer Science
> California State University, Los Angeles
>
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