Non-Expert Systems...aka robots.text
*grins*
For Neill, Kesh, and Prem: some thoughts on determinism. Anyone know how you compress comments down into the just-lines bits, or whether or not if you reply to a comment someone has made in reply to someone else, both get the reply up the chain, or just the one person you reply to?
"There is no fate save that which we choose for ourselves." -Sarah Connor, T2
"Oh great. It's another linear storyline." -me, reviewing a computer game
"Have you ever felt like you were in a dream... a dream you could not wake up from?" -Morpheus, The Matrix
*kicks back in his barrel* What are we? Are we pre-destined to be on one path, or a path that is limited by choices but all choices are predetermined in advance? Or are we protagonists of free will, allowed to go wherever our mind is free to roam? Do we have the flexibility and recognition to be adaptable?
It all boils down, for me, to one simple question:
Is life a game?
If the answer is 'yes', you have let yourself out of accountability for your actions. You are reacting to stimulus in proscribed ways, riding the rail that gives you few, if any routes that are not expected, getting your powerups where available, and eventually you lose the life you've been given and the game is over.
If the answer is 'no', you still might be in a MMORPG, wherein you interact with other people in manners (double-meaning intended) you have available to you, which may or may not offend them, and you can travel where you will, as long as ways through are available, avoiding dangers along the way.
Here's the key.
Who makes your choices?
Do you have the right to fight the orders you are given?
No matter who makes your choices, there will always be rules. Rules of conduct. Rules of law. Rules of physics. Defying those earns you a whole lot more pain than reward, or for some of them, cannot be broken. Is accepting rules a limitation, or a courtesy when it comes to sharing space?
Are rules restrictive enough to narrow your choices down to make your life determinism?
Your parents can do it to you if you aren't careful.
Show of hands: how many of us had parents that encouraged or discouraged us to follow a career path? (raises his paw)
When was the last time you followed a dream of yours?
But then again, where do dreams come from? Is it the inspiration of our subconscious determinism, trying to get us back on track? A mouse-and-pellet reward for getting ourselves back on our 'destiny'?
I'm weird. I believe in pseudo-determinism. I can go wherever I want between my life checkpoints, but I have to hit them in order to remain who I am.
Anyone remember the game Outrun? It was very much a tracked game, but starting with each checkpoint you got to decide which path of the decision tree you went down, to get to the next stretch of road. Each choice you made took you farther away from the endings available if you'd taken the other path. You were still on a road, but you picked where you would end up.
As long as I've lived, I have friends that I've gotten through a string of bizarre events and once-in-a-lifetime meetings that let me make choices that couldn't possibly be in anyone's plan. Certainly wasn't a plan to me.
I've also changed who I am several times since I was ten; discovering more of who I am, discarding who I wasn't anymore, that sort of thing. Walking in and out of places, of people's lives, shedding an old set of behaviors for new ones. Giving myself choices where I didn't let myself have them before.
(There's my reflexivity, Prem.)
I have my routines. Like an ant, I have my best-path to work, and an alternate if I need one, but for the most part I am executing a sequence of events that are strikingly similar, on a daily basis.
But the challenge changes. Just like the day changes. I am constantly learning new things -- and open to learning new things. I know if I really wanted to, I could abandon the course I'm on altogether and (as Kesh says) strike out across the country -- but it's not currently on my list of interests.
I'm middle-of-the-road, here, when all is said and done; I believe we are meant to do certain things, but I think I'm too complex to have everything laid out for me in advance. It'd make life less of a surprise if I knew how the story ended. And that'd be really tragic.
*turns the page*
-Denali!
For Neill, Kesh, and Prem: some thoughts on determinism. Anyone know how you compress comments down into the just-lines bits, or whether or not if you reply to a comment someone has made in reply to someone else, both get the reply up the chain, or just the one person you reply to?
"There is no fate save that which we choose for ourselves." -Sarah Connor, T2
"Oh great. It's another linear storyline." -me, reviewing a computer game
"Have you ever felt like you were in a dream... a dream you could not wake up from?" -Morpheus, The Matrix
*kicks back in his barrel* What are we? Are we pre-destined to be on one path, or a path that is limited by choices but all choices are predetermined in advance? Or are we protagonists of free will, allowed to go wherever our mind is free to roam? Do we have the flexibility and recognition to be adaptable?
It all boils down, for me, to one simple question:
Is life a game?
If the answer is 'yes', you have let yourself out of accountability for your actions. You are reacting to stimulus in proscribed ways, riding the rail that gives you few, if any routes that are not expected, getting your powerups where available, and eventually you lose the life you've been given and the game is over.
If the answer is 'no', you still might be in a MMORPG, wherein you interact with other people in manners (double-meaning intended) you have available to you, which may or may not offend them, and you can travel where you will, as long as ways through are available, avoiding dangers along the way.
Here's the key.
Who makes your choices?
Do you have the right to fight the orders you are given?
No matter who makes your choices, there will always be rules. Rules of conduct. Rules of law. Rules of physics. Defying those earns you a whole lot more pain than reward, or for some of them, cannot be broken. Is accepting rules a limitation, or a courtesy when it comes to sharing space?
Are rules restrictive enough to narrow your choices down to make your life determinism?
Your parents can do it to you if you aren't careful.
Show of hands: how many of us had parents that encouraged or discouraged us to follow a career path? (raises his paw)
When was the last time you followed a dream of yours?
But then again, where do dreams come from? Is it the inspiration of our subconscious determinism, trying to get us back on track? A mouse-and-pellet reward for getting ourselves back on our 'destiny'?
I'm weird. I believe in pseudo-determinism. I can go wherever I want between my life checkpoints, but I have to hit them in order to remain who I am.
Anyone remember the game Outrun? It was very much a tracked game, but starting with each checkpoint you got to decide which path of the decision tree you went down, to get to the next stretch of road. Each choice you made took you farther away from the endings available if you'd taken the other path. You were still on a road, but you picked where you would end up.
As long as I've lived, I have friends that I've gotten through a string of bizarre events and once-in-a-lifetime meetings that let me make choices that couldn't possibly be in anyone's plan. Certainly wasn't a plan to me.
I've also changed who I am several times since I was ten; discovering more of who I am, discarding who I wasn't anymore, that sort of thing. Walking in and out of places, of people's lives, shedding an old set of behaviors for new ones. Giving myself choices where I didn't let myself have them before.
(There's my reflexivity, Prem.)
I have my routines. Like an ant, I have my best-path to work, and an alternate if I need one, but for the most part I am executing a sequence of events that are strikingly similar, on a daily basis.
But the challenge changes. Just like the day changes. I am constantly learning new things -- and open to learning new things. I know if I really wanted to, I could abandon the course I'm on altogether and (as Kesh says) strike out across the country -- but it's not currently on my list of interests.
I'm middle-of-the-road, here, when all is said and done; I believe we are meant to do certain things, but I think I'm too complex to have everything laid out for me in advance. It'd make life less of a surprise if I knew how the story ended. And that'd be really tragic.
*turns the page*
-Denali!