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DasAllerletzte t1_j8rfmqp wrote

Reply to comment by swissiws in Free Will Is Only an Illusion if You Are, Too by greghickey5

Of course it will.

In the end, it was I who entered the information.
And if you’d enter yours, it would decide accordingly.

Nothing is perfect or unique.
It is (for what we know) impossible for two objects to carry the same information.
And through the even greater imperfection of human beings, two of them will neither receive nor evaluate data equally.
Thus, there are infinitely many combinations of presets for that computer.

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swissiws t1_j8rr3rg wrote

I do not mean entering information by hand. I mean: if a computer knew "by magic" how I value each and everything, it could replicate my choices 100% of the time

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DasAllerletzte t1_j8vssrr wrote

How would you express those values?
There is no language to describe such subjective concepts.
And that would be the requirement for a machine to try to evaluate the results.
Then, computers work in binary. Meaning, everything is discrete to them. There is no continuous spectrum.
For example, who do you love/value more: your parents? Your siblings? Your children? Your pets?
Is this allocation constant? Or might it change depending on the situation?
Also, what are those values anyway?

And finally, who designed that computer? Who programmed it?
Can a universal thought process even exist?

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swissiws t1_j8w0nn2 wrote

the fact that those concepts are vague (because we are ignorant about ourselves) does not change the fact that we have values that drive our choices. whatever the way it's operated, it does not change the outcome

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DasAllerletzte t1_j8wak73 wrote

What about those small little and „unimportant“ choices?
Will you treat yourself with a snack this evening? Is it a bar of chocolate, or rather a bunch of carrots?

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swissiws t1_j8wtie5 wrote

well, what does your body want? sugars? then it's chocolate. is your fear of losing health a bit high due to news you have heard? maybe that fear is stronger than your need for sugar. then it's carrots. meybe you can eve feel your inner fight, because the 2 desires are almost identical. but the stronger prevails in the end

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