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Free will or biological machines?
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So anyways, what does everyone think on this hot subject? Do people have free will? Being able to make their own choices and have a unique grasp on the world from ones own perspective. or Are we biological programs? Every choice we make is determined by our surroundings and environment from the day we were born. Any experts on brains? (zombies aside...) Does our brain give us free thought and ideas or is it something that gathers information and acts on what it has gathered?  Jomunga eats your avatars. |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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on 2007-07-15 13:25:27 |
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Hm.. Technically, you DO have free will. You can do anything you want anytime you want. For example, if I was at work right now I could: Do what I was supposed to do, dance, walk out and quit, eat, wreck my working space, etc. Of course, nobody does that because of obvious reasons and mental limitations (rules, embarrasment, etc.). We base our choices on our surroundings and stuff..yeah.. 
So I drove into a parking lot one time and saw this person pull into a handicap parking spot. When you think handicap, you think wheelchair and whatever, right? So it just ticked me off when I saw the guy come out of the car perfectly fine. So then I ran him over. |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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on 2007-07-18 00:05:49 |
well, as i'm sure gendou will explain much more adequately than i,technically speaking, free will does not exist. There is a finite limit of possibilities for decision that one may take, and the process of how we choose them is also, though magnificently complicated, is also bound scientifically. Of course the number of possibilities is so great that the illusion of free will is created, or that with so many possible actions, we practically possess free will. I hope that was right, please correct me if i am wrong. Though i hate to admit this all, i've always been a stalwart free will advocate, Sartre ftw!  |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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on 2007-07-18 00:34:15 |
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yo can do free things. But the environment ish playing a huge part in someones life. you can choose to leave it alone and doing your own stuff. But the result will be that your are different not in my eyes but some people think it is different cause you doing something what other people won't do. But it is your own decision to do everything on you'r own and feel free.  |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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You can say that free will is very much like being a biological machine. Even though we can say you have free will and are very much capable of doing what you want anytime you see fit. You are bounded by what you know determining the surroundings you place yourself at. If you were a kind hearted person or a mean person is your choice, but determining where you lived or who you meet determines who you are and how you will act.
(>^_^)><(^_^<)
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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| We are biological programs, but I think we have free will in the essence that our actions can be unpredictable. You have the choice to take some random, crazy, unpredictable action, but it is still based on your environment, DNA, and past experiences. If a super computer could store every bit of information on every atom that ever existed, it could accurately predict the future. |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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on 2007-08-02 14:39:27 |
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Right now I could get a knife and try to kill everyone around me. Nothing in my environment is pushing or nudging me to do so but I still could do it. However, I choose not too because, one, nothing in my environment is pushing me too and, two, my conscience tells me it probably wouldn't be the nicest thing ever. So, we have free will we just choose not to use it. Or maybe that is free will. 
Still busy, but trying to stop by more. •---/zzzzzzzz> |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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on 2007-08-09 04:16:48 |
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There is a finite limit of possibilities for decision that one may take, and the process of how we choose them is also, though magnificently complicated, is also bound scientifically. Of course the number of possibilities is so great that the illusion of free will is created, or that with so many possible actions, we practically possess free will. Well, since the world and its contents are finite, there has to be a limit to everything, right? So, I think being able to choose from all those many but still finite possible choices could be called "free will".   |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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Well, the environment do have an impact on our ways of thinking and our daily actions. That is inevitable as we are social beings. But wether we want to follow the society or not is entirely up to us, that is what i believe. Thus i say we have free will. Maybe it's because there are so many typical cases where people choose to be affected by the environment (actually, almost everyone in the world decided to do so) that people started to doubt wether we have free will or not |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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Well of course we never had free will since laws were created as they censor what we say control what we do e.g. A child MUST go to school and the cops can be called in on this on. We HAVE to pay taxes. But of coure to a certain eent we are not controled e.g. WE get to chose what we do when we leave school, WE get to chose were we live. Really in my opinion we are controlled more than we are in control, but not by much. |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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on 2007-08-09 15:39:01 |
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Actually, I think it's your free will that makes you follow those rules. You have the ability to break the rules if you want, but some people don't do it. Also, being controlled is a choice IMO, although there are some really serious situations in which a person really have no choice but be controlled. |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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on 2007-08-10 20:27:14 |
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Maybe free will does not exist, maybe all you do is always influenced with a countless amount of factors that, if one were able to be aware of all of them, then he/she would predict what are we going to do. If that's so, then what we get is a fake sensation that "we can choose"... which feels pretty real, eh?. I like to think that every time is always a possibility to change it ALL! if you want.   |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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on 2007-08-11 13:56:48 |
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Putting the science aside, there's also the idea of divine intervention and destiny. So you could do things out of the norm but it still wouldn't be free will.
Still busy, but trying to stop by more. •---/zzzzzzzz> |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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| Well fair enough "destiny" rules out the possbility of free will and means we are being pulled along by springs and are dancing to the puppet master |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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Leaders(countable few) exert their "free will" on the packs. The packs(the rest of us) are bio machines under the direction of the great leaders. Leaders set directions/goals/ambitions and will go all out to achieve it, regardless of casualties, conscience, environment crisis etc. The pack of bio machines will then execute the instructions from the leaders. They are willing to trade off their free will for stability in monthly peanuts while the great leaders got monthly gold bars. |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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on 2007-08-14 05:02:55 |
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@wheelfree: Not all leaders are like that, and not all "followers" are so obedient and not protest at all. And like I said before, I think it's your free will that make you follow rules. |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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on 2007-08-14 13:15:04 |
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@Wheelfree/@Asd: I believe you're right; someone who follows a leader does so by choice and free will. Even if the leader is evil and powerful someone doesn't have to follow them if he doesn't want to. The only reason they would follow the leader when they don't want to is when they fear the consequences (death, for example). But they still don't have to follow him.
Still busy, but trying to stop by more. •---/zzzzzzzz> |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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I've had this argument with a number of people, and I personally would like to believe we are the masters of our own destinies, however, I feel that upon observation, it would be revealed that we are all in fact, extremely complex programs, with our code written upon the input, or even lack of input of those around us. The human body is essentially a computer, being one, it runs off a programming language, what this language is, it's extents, and possible flaws, are the secrets in figuring out what the human mind is capable of. Edit: In addition, on the argument of ideas and creativity, I feel that a persons creativity is based on how their programming language was written, their programs priorities, etc. A person who had never seen a couch before, and was told nothing of what it was used for, would have no idea what it could possibly look like, but once told that "You sit on it." he would begin imagining what it could look like, "Probably something similar to a chair." and that is how ideas come about. |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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We do not have free will. If you look at science magazines. scientists have found out that peer pressure affect us subtly. Our actions can be predicted by calculations. Humans are just really complex machines. |
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Re: Free will or biological machines?
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on 2007-08-19 01:33:38 (edited 2007-08-24 03:11:43)
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scientists have found out that peer pressure affect us subtly. Our actions can be predicted by calculations. Being affected by something does NOT mean that thing robbed your free will. And like I said, you have the option to completely ignore those things. |
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