Blackfish documentary on CNN - anyone else watch it?
#28
Quote:I mean a different thing. You deciding to type something on your keyboard is just molecules in your body moving and reacting with each other.
The most energetically favorable thing will happen. You don't influence that, it just happens.

If you follow the premise that the universe is a collection of particles that must follow prescribed laws and that everything in the universe is caused by the interaction of those atoms following those laws, then we ourselves are also just a collection of particles following those laws. While it would appear to us that we have free will, our very thought processes are just a by-product of the interactions and our free will is just an illusion.

It's a very interesting philosophical subject which can neither be proved or disproved scientifically at the moment. It's a big part of a philosophy paper I took at university on AI and the nature of consciousness. For anyone who is interested in the idea, the textbook for the course (which was written by our lecturer) is a good introduction.
"What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?"

-W.C. Fields
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RE: Blackfish documentary on CNN - anyone else watch it? - by LennyLen - 10-27-2013, 10:57 PM

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