From Robert Cailliau, Prévessin-Moëns, France
My lack of free will gives me no choice but to disagree with Tom Stafford 6 April, p 34. Cellular automata may look unpredictable to him, but surely they produce exactly the same pattern when started from the same initial conditions, unless a random number generator based on quantum physics is incorporated.
What does he mean by self-determination, anyway? I can “freely choose” between two issues if no outside agents prevent it, and then my choice is based on a conscious or unconscious preference. If I choose totally at random, can it be called a choice?
My illusion of free will comes from the absence of external intervention, but my choices are still determined by my past, which shaped what I want.
Fortunately, nature is truly random at some level: it would all be totally deterministic and horribly boring without that.
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Also, Stafford leaves me no choice about his Choice Engine: this interactive essay is on Twitter, a commercial entity based outside of our legal space. I have no desire to make an account there. Can we expect to see the engine on a no-strings-attached platform?
