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It seems to be that an event is either random or determined, and neither option gives us what we want out of free will. I don't think there is any middle ground
by samd 17y ago
It seems to be that an event is either random or determined, and neither option gives us what we want out of free will. I don't think there is any middle ground, and since it doesn't seem like our decisions are random, then they must be determined. Which also fits nicely with other things like psychology. Psychology shows that our actions can be predicted, which wouldn't be possible if they were random.
- davatk 17y agoWhy not? The Miller-Rabin primality test is both random and, for all intents and purposes, predictable.
- samd 17y agoHow predictable? Do you mean that for any input x you can predict y?
- davatk 17y agoI should probably stress that I agree with you on pretty much everything except that last sentence. As for the Miller-Rabin test, it's basically a case where you can get a correct answer with an arbitrarily low probability of error. So I guess the tie in is that just because our decisions are predictable (or at least mostly so), doesn't mean there isn't randomness involved. I'm starting to suspect that I'm responding to an interpretation you didn't intend, though.