Do you have free will?

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 4:34 pm

This is religion-related in a round about way...you robots.

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 4:50 pm

too bad I can't vote for more than one option...

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:35 am

You can elaborate here, that's what the thread is for!

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:48 am

Yes, tell me I'm a robot and slap the shit out of me for being a follower and not thinking for myself. Damnit.

Unless, as discussed earlier, I'm a fucking robot.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:59 am

Tigger wrote:

Yes, tell me I'm a robot and slap the shit out of me for being a follower and not thinking for myself.

A lot of people do that and lead blissfully ignorant, happy lives. I wish I were so lucky sometimes.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:18 pm

A lot of people are also idiots.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:43 pm

Knowing things just makes me depressed and/or angry. That's the reason I don't watch the news on TV. Would I be better off knowing the exact number of children that were sodomized and murdered today in some third world country like Utah? Probably not.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 1:21 pm

what have you been smoking bri?

Slutzilla Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 523

I think he has been watching too much Blade Runner.

I picked yes, but only if I had super strength, super speed and could regenerate.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:11 pm

I answered with a question just to be contentious. What's the difference?

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:00 pm

Obviously, we are not talking about gears and levers and circuit-boards here...

So that means that someone is blindly following something and believes that they are a critical thinker, not a sheep. Right?

To further answer: I am more than willing to be called onto the carpet and told that I am blindly following something in the most dogmatic way possible, but that person who called me out should have some good evidence.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:06 pm

I voted "what have you been smoking" because I'm always looking to cruise new storefronts. Brian. I never knew!

Anyway.

If you were a robot, and I knew, but you didn't, would you want me to tell you?

Trick question. Just install upgrades and we're fine.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:18 pm

bjciii wrote:

Obviously, we are not talking about gears and levers and circuit-boards here...

So that means that someone is blindly following something and believes that they are a critical thinker, not a sheep. Right?

I'm talking more about the possibility that we are essentially biological machines acting out our chemical programming. What we think of as "free will" is either determined by our brain chemistry and its memory, or random particles bouncing around in that brain chemistry. So, am I a chemical machine with delusions of grandeur? And, if so, what effect does that conclusion have on society, politics, philosophy, etc.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:10 am

BrianW wrote:

I'm talking more about the possibility that we are essentially biological machines acting out our chemical programming. What we think of as "free will" is either determined by our brain chemistry and its memory, or random particles bouncing around in that brain chemistry. So, am I a chemical machine with delusions of grandeur? And, if so, what effect does that conclusion have on society, politics, philosophy, etc.

seriously, that must have been some good shit, man. got any left?

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:42 am

It's about half the Scott Adams blog, half Big Bang Theory (the terrible sitcom) and half lack of girlfriend.