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Do you have free will?

Started by Savonarola, June 04, 2014, 04:25:26 PM

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Do you have free will?

I'm predestined to vote yes
9 (30%)
I've decided to vote no
10 (33.3%)
Of course, I have every Rush single
11 (36.7%)

Total Members Voted: 30

crazy canuck

Quote from: Ideologue on June 05, 2014, 04:39:03 PM
Hamilcar and I had this argument like eight years ago.

By the way did you ever get the chance to tell him to get his ass back in here?

Savonarola

Quote from: Valmy on June 05, 2014, 04:59:19 PM
Quote from: Savonarola on June 05, 2014, 04:50:19 PM
Quote from: Valmy on June 05, 2014, 04:38:15 PM
What if you built your Death Star that had remote tachyon control and you pressed the button to destroy Alderaan on Alderaan?  You are committing an impossible act yes?

I don't think that even violates free will.  I press my tachyon trigger and two years later, from Alderaan's frame of reference, Alderaan is destroyed.  In that case, if I have free will, I can decide not to destroy Alderaan before I destroy Alderaan.

Ah I thought Alderaan would had to  have already been blown up years before?

No, but from the frame of reference of Alderaan the Death Star will have fired upon it 9 years before you press the trigger.  So that does violate free will after all.  There's a reason why I'm an engineer and not a physicist.   :Embarrass:
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Ideologue

Quote from: crazy canuck on June 05, 2014, 05:25:33 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on June 05, 2014, 04:39:03 PM
Hamilcar and I had this argument like eight years ago.

By the way did you ever get the chance to tell him to get his ass back in here?

I really ought to, but I forgot I said I would.  Also, it's been a long time since we spoke and his social position intimidates me.
Kinemalogue
Current reviews: The 'Burbs (9/10); Gremlins 2: The New Batch (9/10); John Wick: Chapter 2 (9/10); A Cure For Wellness (4/10)

crazy canuck

Quote from: Ideologue on June 05, 2014, 06:03:56 PM
Quote from: crazy canuck on June 05, 2014, 05:25:33 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on June 05, 2014, 04:39:03 PM
Hamilcar and I had this argument like eight years ago.

By the way did you ever get the chance to tell him to get his ass back in here?

I really ought to, but I forgot I said I would.  Also, it's been a long time since we spoke and his social position intimidates me.

Just tell him I said so

Ideologue

His social position should intimidate you too.
Kinemalogue
Current reviews: The 'Burbs (9/10); Gremlins 2: The New Batch (9/10); John Wick: Chapter 2 (9/10); A Cure For Wellness (4/10)


Eddie Teach

He's not actually a Carthaginian general, you know.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

Ed Anger

Quote from: Ideologue on June 05, 2014, 06:21:45 PM
His social position should intimidate you too.

Do I: intimidate you?
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Sheilbh

Yes :)

Edit: To the opening question and Ed's :P
Let's bomb Russia!

jimmy olsen

Quote from: Savonarola on June 05, 2014, 10:25:30 AM
Quote from: frunk on June 05, 2014, 10:00:49 AM
Quote from: Savonarola on June 05, 2014, 09:55:01 AM
But that still eliminates the possibility of free will.  The person dying necessitates the shooter to pull the trigger; even if you state it as his death is the cause of him being shot.  The shooter doesn't have a choice.

It's moving the point of choice from when the shooter pulls the trigger to when the person is shot.  There's still free will, it just isn't at the moment the shooter pulled the trigger from all reference frames.

I don't think I'm following here.  Four years ago I build the Death Star with a Tachyon Beam canon with Tachyons which travel at 10 times the speed of light.  I then decide to blow up planet Alderaan which is 10 light years away.  From Alderaan's frame of reference they are destroyed five years before I started building the Death Star.  How can I choose not to build the Death Star when I already used it to destroy Alderaan five years ago?
Blowing up Alderaan causes the Rebellion to gain a lot of momentum and they overthrow the Empire in the next three years. You can't build the Death Star because you've been deposed. :contract:
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Ideologue

Quote from: Ed Anger on June 05, 2014, 06:57:35 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on June 05, 2014, 06:21:45 PM
His social position should intimidate you too.

Do I: intimidate you?

No.  You're just some upper middle class guy who went to Ohio State and got a leg settlement.  I envy you, but you're just folks.
Kinemalogue
Current reviews: The 'Burbs (9/10); Gremlins 2: The New Batch (9/10); John Wick: Chapter 2 (9/10); A Cure For Wellness (4/10)

frunk

Quote from: crazy canuck on June 05, 2014, 04:46:24 PM
Ah, thanks for the clarification.

Check out these pages for other interpretations of QM, virtually all of them valid since there isn't a good way of testing which is true.  My favorite head scratchers are the Time Symmetric interpretations, which posit that Heisenberg's Uncertainty arises from the interaction of events from the past and from the future to give rise to indeterminacy in the present.  That's like saying you don't know what will happen today because of what happened yesterday and what happened tomorrow.

The mainstream interpretation of QM would probably run through various flavors of the Copenhagen Interpretation into RQM (Relational Interpretation).  The advantage of RQM is that it is similar to the Einstein's relativities in not trying to force a "true" reference frame into existence.  Instead QM describes the continuous rectification between different reference frames.  MWI has a lot of adherents primarily because it is a fun way to look at QM and since there isn't a good way to distinguish between different interpretations why not pick the entertaining one?

Ed Anger

Quote from: Ideologue on June 06, 2014, 12:43:36 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on June 05, 2014, 06:57:35 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on June 05, 2014, 06:21:45 PM
His social position should intimidate you too.

Do I: intimidate you?

No.  You're just some upper middle class guy who went to Ohio State and got a leg settlement.  I envy you, but you're just folks.

I didn't go to college after high school. Couldn't afford it. I went to the university of K-Mart.

BUT I'M MIDDLE CLASS! :w00t:
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

The Minsky Moment

Quote from: Savonarola on June 05, 2014, 04:31:20 PM
Quote from: The Minsky Moment on June 05, 2014, 03:55:59 PM
Quote from: Savonarola on June 05, 2014, 01:02:59 PM
In relativity theory is both frames of reference are valid; from the reference frame of Alderaan I must pull the trigger.

But free will is subjective personal experience; so for that purpose the only frame of reference that matters is the subject.  From the POV of Alderaanis, my actions are pre-determined, but I don't care about their POV (indeed I have decided to annihilate it).  From my POV I have a choice.

But you can't decide not to pull the trigger since you already destroyed Alderaan.  Your action is predetermined.

From my frame of reference it isn't.  And that is the only frame of reference that matters to me.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

Ideologue

Quote from: Ed Anger on June 06, 2014, 07:55:12 AM
Quote from: Ideologue on June 06, 2014, 12:43:36 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on June 05, 2014, 06:57:35 PM
Quote from: Ideologue on June 05, 2014, 06:21:45 PM
His social position should intimidate you too.

Do I: intimidate you?

No.  You're just some upper middle class guy who went to Ohio State and got a leg settlement.  I envy you, but you're just folks.

I didn't go to college after high school. Couldn't afford it. I went to the university of K-Mart.

BUT I'M MIDDLE CLASS! :w00t:

Boomers gonna Boom.
Kinemalogue
Current reviews: The 'Burbs (9/10); Gremlins 2: The New Batch (9/10); John Wick: Chapter 2 (9/10); A Cure For Wellness (4/10)