[adestefan]

A girl would like to ask a boy to the high school dance.

A computer can do all the calculations to decide on if it's a good idea. Given the inputs of the time they have spent together, the number of glances that are passed between then in the halls between classes, if he doesn't have a date yet or not, etc. The probability adds up to ask.

So the machine decides to ask.

The girl feels it. Has all the time they've spent together has made her feel a certain way? Maybe a weird tingle each time their arms touch. Is that glance in the hall this morning not just an accident, but him going a little out of his way for her to notice? She's asked around and knows that no one else has asked him, but doe he really not have a date yet? Can she overcome the bit of anxiety about asking a boy to the dance? Will she be able to accept the risk of rejection knowing that the chances may be high he says yes?

Only she can choose.

[holoduke]

All the tingles, feelings, anxieties and hesitations are activities triggered by little programs that work autonomously and are fully deterministic. The girl is fooled

[cmrdporcupine]

Even if you accept a strong determinist position, there is still a distinction:

The determining factors driving a computer program can be fully quanitified; the sets of inputs and conditions is finite, can be reasoned over, and described fully.

That's basically the fundamental description of computing, in fact, and what makes a Turing machine.

The determining factors "IRL" are effectively infinite, a causal "chain" of infinite (or near infinite) complexity that expands backwards to the Big Bang, (or whatever) and sideways around the planet and beyond. There is no catalog you could make of all the "causes" that could isolate things enough to truly reason over and describe them all.

And so, yeah, to say it's all just "little programs" is the most ridiculous reductionism, that basically purposefully neglects to see the complexity and depth of the world around us.

I personally take a strongly determinist, materialist philosophical position. But I would never ever express that in terms of "programs" or anything similar.

[d0mine]

You assume classic, non-quantum world.

The entropy of the observable universe is _finite_. https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/4118/how-many-by...

[adestefan]

HN consistently reminds me of the park bench scene in Good Will Hunting.

[belter]

An illusory choice...

"Does Quantum Mechanics Rule Out Free Will?" - https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-quantum-mech...