[FRIAM] alternative response

[glen∉ℂ]

Exactly! If humans have free will, we can program a machine to have it too (someday, anyway). And since we don't know how to *construct* free will and the evidence against it is accumulating, it's reasonable to claim it doesn't exist and the burden is increasingly on those who believe in it to make their case.

But note that the construction I spitballed does NOT define free will as spontaneous. It's cumulative. In fact, that construction rejects the idea that free will is spontaneous in any way.

On 6/16/20 1:39 PM, thompnickson2 at gmail.com wrote:
> Yes.  I don't think Nick is every going to write such a paper (as opposed, say, to participating along with a bunch of you in writing such a book).  However, as I work through the correspondence of the last week (Gawd what a splatter), I have yet to see any support for the idea that there is any fundamental reason why a computer could not be constructed to exhibit any free will that humans have.
> 
> It begins to seem to me that "free will" and "emergence" are the same sort of concept and likely to die by the same sword.  Once you define "free will" as that which is "spontaneous" (i.e., not explained by anything), you have to prepare yourself for the moment when it is explained.