Post by blue tigers on May 12, 2007 16:40:38 GMT -5
The old free will cop out. The favourite of religionists of all time.
Which just happens to be a moot point for any being in an universe with a well defined arrow of time. Whether such being has free will or not is undistinguishable from within the said universe. There is no experiment that can be conduced in said universe that can prove or disprove the free will hypothesis. Only by arbitrarily postulating phenomenons outside of the time arrow you end up with the dilema of free will. This kind of circular reasonement has a name, reductio ad absurdum. For 2500 years logicians have picked the same solution to the dilema: the starting hypothesis it false.
By the way, HGW work is a strong social commentary using SF as a background. Seek wisdom in the SF part of if at your own peril.
Which just happens to be a moot point for any being in an universe with a well defined arrow of time. Whether such being has free will or not is undistinguishable from within the said universe. There is no experiment that can be conduced in said universe that can prove or disprove the free will hypothesis. Only by arbitrarily postulating phenomenons outside of the time arrow you end up with the dilema of free will. This kind of circular reasonement has a name, reductio ad absurdum. For 2500 years logicians have picked the same solution to the dilema: the starting hypothesis it false.
By the way, HGW work is a strong social commentary using SF as a background. Seek wisdom in the SF part of if at your own peril.