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by naasking 3261 days ago
What is "free"? What is "agent"?
1 comments

"agent": a word identifying an actor, derived from a word denoting an action (wikipedia). "Free": means that the agent is not tethered to a single course of action given environmental circumstances. "Intelligence" computation involving probabilities as to what option to choose (my own condensation of various relevant definitions). Which means that groves of aspen trees can't be intelligent ... yeah I think the premise is overstretching the meaning of intelligence. For PR purposes is my feeling.
By this definition, I argue no human is a free agent.

They are agents, perhaps. but "not tethered to a single course of action given environmental circumstances." Examples: As an aggregate, humans flinch away from heat and pain. There are outliers but they are insignificant enough to not be relevant (people neurological disorders, etc). Furthermore, a human has no control over their birth circumstances and thus the culture they are raised in, as an aggregate this means that generally there is little "freedom" in your values and worldview. Again, there are outliers, but in aggregate this is true.