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Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cosmicforce who wrote (7862)	9/6/2001 11:44:04 AM
From: Mitch Blevins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

I think it is misguided to talk about quantum effects and randomness in the same subject as "free will". I would agree with Dennett[1] on this one that most peoples' concerns about free will stem from a nonsensical notion of inevitability or of some devious puppet-master pulling our strings. This makes the issue of determinism or quantum effects to be irrelevant (or overstated, at least). We can see from attempts to formalize the notion of causality[2] that our conception of it is inseparable from counterfactuals and interdiction in the causal chain. But when I hear talk of collapsing wave functions and quantum effects, I think of these as events that I have no control over. I also think of these things as subatomic events which cannot have an effect on our normal macroscopic world unless it is through some sort of amplification and the butterfly effect[3]. Some writers have proposed that we have influence over quantum effects in the brain, which are amplified via some sort of quantum amplification microtubule. However, this viewpoint seems to imply a dualistic view, as if our brains are superfluous and we have an already functioning mind in the "spirit world" that can influence the "real" material world in a predictable way via the magical quantum amplifiers. Yeah... Of course some people seem to think that positive control of your life can only come through constricting your anus at least 100 times per day. amazon.com [1] Dennett, Daniel - Elbow Room amazon.com [2] Pearl, Judea - Causality: Models, Reasoning, and Inference amazon.com [3] If a butterfly flaps its wings in South America, it might set off a chain of causal events that amplify as they progress down the chain, eventually leading to a tsunami off the coast of Japan. (sorry, no reference) And on a lighter note, I present the Product Placement Bible... chaparraltree.com