Hello, I think what I regards as choice and free will includes autonomy - which is the ability to decide to pursue and, by implication, create goals. I think th

Hello, I think what I regards as choice and free will includes autonomy - which is the ability to decide to pursue and, by implication, create goals. I think that there is type 1 autonomy where an entity is free to undertake goals according to "choice" of the sort that I believe you are outlining above. Essentially a type 1 autonoma can create and modify plans like the code you have written down above. A type 2 autonoma can decide to do, or not do things. It can write the code you have written, if it decides to go on a functional programming course.... To me this is the difference between the weather and a sentient entity. I think of computer programs in the same category as I think of the weather, but I see sentient entities in a different category. I don't exclude machines from this category now, but I see all the machines that I have had experience of a part of category 1. How a machine could be described that fits into category 2 eludes me - and everyone else I think.