Free Will

[Whateverist]

There is no ghost in the machine, there are people who simply make up superstitious words to explain the world around them.

Oh come on. Of course there are ghosts inside the machine. Who do you think are posting all these posts on forums? It isn't anything to do with survival or instinctual. Man, you have got to get in touch with your inner spook. Dare to be the ghost. hock: When others try to convince you that your actions are just a force of nature, just remember who you really are .. a ghost. Now get out there and haunt shit, okay?

[KichigaiNeko]

[Brian37]

There is no ghost in the machine, there are people who simply make up superstitious words to explain the world around them.

Oh come on. Of course there are ghosts inside the machine. Who do you think are posting all these posts on forums? It isn't anything to do with survival or instinctual. Man, you have got to get in touch with your inner spook. Dare to be the ghost. hock: When others try to convince you that your actions are just a force of nature, just remember who you really are .. a ghost. Now get out there and haunt shit, okay?

BOO! How's that?

[Whateverist]

Oh come on. Of course there are ghosts inside the machine. Who do you think are posting all these posts on forums? It isn't anything to do with survival or instinctual. Man, you have got to get in touch with your inner spook. Dare to be the ghost. hock: When others try to convince you that your actions are just a force of nature, just remember who you really are .. a ghost. Now get out there and haunt shit, okay?

BOO! How's that?

That's what I'm talking about!

[BGChuckLee]

What's the difference between a rock and an animal?

[Whateverist]

What's the difference between a rock and an animal?

Those who are not determinists think that the trajectory of only one of these is ultimately predictable by physics.

Riddle me this: what's the difference between broccoli and boogers?

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Kids won't eat broccoli.

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[BGChuckLee]

What's the difference between a rock and an animal?

Those who are not determinists think that the trajectory of only one of these is ultimately predictable by physics.

Riddle me this: what's the difference between broccoli and boogers?

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Kids won't eat broccoli.

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I don't get it though, it's so simple. If you asked a child what the difference between a rock and a human is, they will tell you right away. It's no mystery.

[Whateverist]

I don't get it though, it's so simple. If you asked a child what the difference between a rock and a human is, they will tell you right away. It's no mystery.

You're speaking to the converted here but there are many who would disagree. You'd be surprised how rare common sense can really be.

[Zen Badger]

What's the difference between a rock and an animal?

You can kill an animal with a rock but not a rock with an animal.

[Esquilax]

What's the difference between a rock and an animal?

You can kill an animal with a rock but not a rock with an animal.

Clearly you've never fired an elephant out of a cannon at a cliff face before. It'll make a dent.

As to the original question, I really am trying to figure out what the point of it might be, and especially how it pertains to the question of free will.

In relation to the OP, I suppose it's a matter of scale: at some level, with enough computational power and data, it might be possible to predict the actions of any given human being based on the chemical impulses in the brain and a detailed knowledge of how those behaviors manifest. We are, after all, defined by our biological makeup, by which I mean our parameters are set up by our genetics, not some nebulous soul. However, there's nothing on earth with the predictive capabilities to do this, and maybe there won't be; so long as we have some degree of uncertainty, we retain our free will.

Perhaps in the future a machine will be invented that can pull back the curtain and reveal to us exactly how we are influenced by our body chemistry to act; would we still have our free will then? I'd say yes, assuming we could ignore what the machine predicts. In the end, it doesn't matter if we are dominated by our biology or not; from our scale of consciousness there is no distinction.