<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body dir="auto"><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">You argue "free will is a pattern, a relentless stubbornness in doing". It fits to Robert Sapolsky who says it is all wired and (pre-)determined and there is no free will. And to Schopenhauer's pessimistic view "A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants" ("Der Mensch kann tun, was er will, aber er kann nicht wollen, was er will")</span></p><br dir="auto"><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">To me it looks like free will is the opposite: we are the only animals which have the ability to break the patterns that govern our behavior. You have the freedom to choose what you want to be on fire about - at least in principle</span></p><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">https://youtu.be/4vtVOJB2r4Q</span></p><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br></span></p><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">J.</span></p><p style="margin-top:0.0pt;margin-bottom:0.0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br></span></p><div><br></div><div align="left" dir="auto" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000"><div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Nicholas Thompson <thompnickson2@gmail.com> </div><div>Date: 6/10/25 1:47 AM (GMT+01:00) </div><div>To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> </div><div>Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Free will—ghost in the machine or just clever wiring? </div><div><br></div></div><div>I am overwhelmingly happy to take a position on free will for Marcus:</div><div><br></div><div>You don’t have it, I don’t have it. George doesn’t have it. Will is not the sort of thing that can be had. It is a pattern, a relentless stubbornness in doing.</div><div><div dir="ltr">Sent from my Dumb <span style="font-size: 17pt;">Phone</span></div><div dir="ltr"><br>On Jun 9, 2025, at 2:36 PM, steve smith <sasmyth@swcp.com> wrote:<br><br></div><div dir="ltr"><span></span><br><span>On 6/9/25 12:25 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:</span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>Why do you call ChatGPT George? I must have missed it. Or who was George?</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>We have a bar named George R in Berlin by the way, in the quarter where I live. It is named after George Remus, an American bootlegger during the Prohibition era</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Remus</span><br></blockquote><span></span><br><span>someone might add an extra R in homage to our own George R.R. (Martin)?</span><br><span></span><br><span>I'm surprised the "George" reference slipped by you, I don't know if it was Stephen or Nick who first started making the reference to GPT (any version) in that mode, but it was a variant on another personal name I think Stephen used for a while with "Gupta" as the surname? I think it was intended to suggest a serious collaborator, but somehow (d)evolved to George? If I weren't so lazy, I'd go dig through the archives... I think someone with a higher fidelity memory or implicated in that origination will pile on here?</span><br><span></span><br><div><OpenPGP_0xD5BAF94F88AFFA63.asc></div><span>.- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-..</span><br><span>FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv</span><br><span>Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam</span><br><span>to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</span><br><span>FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</span><br><span>archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/</span><br><span> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/</span><br></div></div></body></html>