[FRIAM] Breaking Bad and Free Will

[Marcus Daniels]

Does ChatGPT have choices?

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of Stephen Guerin
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2024 3:36 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Breaking Bad and Free Will

Anyone interested in feeding FRIAM Archive to a custom LLM. :-)

Prompt: Interpret Marcus use of gdb analogy in this thread:

GPT:
The analogy used by Marcus in the context of the TV show "Breaking Bad" and the concept of free will involves a comparison with using the "step" command in GDB (GNU Debugger). GDB is a tool used by programmers to debug code. The "step" command in GDB allows the user to execute program code one line at a time, observing the behavior and state of the program at each step.

In "Breaking Bad," the main character, Walter White, is drawn into a life of crime. The analogy suggests that watching Walter White's descent into this life is like using the "step" command in GDB. Each step represents a decision or action taken by Walter, leading him deeper into the criminal world. Just as a programmer observes the progression of a program one step at a time in GDB, the viewer observes Walter's journey into criminality in a step-by-step manner.

The implication here is that Walter's choices, while appearing to be individual conscious decisions, are part of an inevitable progression, much like the sequential execution of code in a debugger. This raises questions about free will and determinism, mirroring the discussion in the FRIAM group about whether free will is an illusion, especially in the context of strong compulsions or character traits that might limit one's range of choices.
____________________________________________
CEO Founder, Simtable.com
stephen.guerin at simtable.com<mailto:stephen.guerin at simtable.com>

Harvard Visualization Research and Teaching Lab
stephenguerin at fas.harvard.edu<mailto:stephenguerin at fas.harvard.edu>

mobile: (505)577-5828

On Thu, Jan 25, 2024, 4:20 PM Frank Wimberly <wimberly3 at gmail.com<mailto:wimberly3 at gmail.com>> wrote:
GNU Debugger?

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

On Thu, Jan 25, 2024, 4:11 PM Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com<mailto:marcus at snoutfarm.com>> wrote:
Walter White was drawn into that life as sure as water runs downhill.    Watching him go deeper and deeper was like repeating “step” in GDB.

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com<mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com>> On Behalf Of Jochen Fromm
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2024 1:34 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com<mailto:friam at redfish.com>>
Subject: [FRIAM] Breaking Bad and Free Will

Since one of you mentioned today that free will is a recurring FRIAM topic I was thinking about it and found this SCIAM article that argues that human beings do have the power to make conscious choices.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/free-will-is-only-an-illusion-if-you-are-too/

On the other hand the drug addicts in Breaking Bad and elsewhere clearly demonstrate that drug addiction inevitably takes away our free will and replaces it by a strong compulsion to get and consume the drug, no matter how devastating the consequences are.

Robert McKee says in his book "Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting" that true character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure. Could you say that a strong character or personality reduce our free will too, because they restrict our choices and decisions?

-J.

-. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe   /   Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam
to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
archives:  5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/
  1/2003 thru 6/2021  http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
-. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe   /   Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam
to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
archives:  5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/
  1/2003 thru 6/2021  http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20240125/4161517b/attachment.html>