Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id JAA27151 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 4 Apr 2001 09:22:09 +0100 Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 09:14:12 +0100 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Determinism Message-ID: <20010404091412.B10999@reborntechnology.co.uk> References: <3AC904E5.10167.246146@localhost> <3AC9A569.258C00E9@bioinf.man.ac.uk> <20010403122328.A661@reborntechnology.co.uk> <001c01c0bc47$b61e1aa0$5eaefea9@rcn.com> <20010403214415.B699@reborntechnology.co.uk> <004d01c0bc87$83e4f140$5eaefea9@rcn.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.15i In-Reply-To: <004d01c0bc87$83e4f140$5eaefea9@rcn.com>; from agassi@erols.com on Tue, Apr 03, 2001 at 05:46:17PM -0400 From: Robin Faichney <robin@reborntechnology.co.uk> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Tue, Apr 03, 2001 at 05:46:17PM -0400, Aaron Agassi wrote:
>
> > > > > The practical difficulties of the mapping aren't really relevant.
> The
> > > > > point is that *in principle* if you could have perfect knowledge you
> > > > > could perfectly predict. There are no ghosts in any machines. In
> > > > > practice we can only work within practical boundaries.
> > > >
> > > > It is, IN PRINCIPLE, impossible to have perfect knowledge. This makes
> > > > your scenario meaningless.
> > > >
> > > Bullshit! The perfect knowledge here discussed is not a necessary
> premise
> > > for ant conclusion, but merely a hypothetical for the purpose of
> > > illustration of an idea difficult to express otherwise.
> > >
> > Uncertainty is both necessary and sufficient for freedom.
> >
> Just what is Uncertainty?
Uncertainty is the state of not knowing. (Don't you have a dictionary,
Aaron?) Perfect knowledge negates freedom, but perfect knowledge is
acheivable neither in practice nor in theory, so freedom is not negated.
As long as people try to understand freedom as a physical phenomenon,
confusion will reign.
-- Robin Faichney Get your Meta-Information from http://www.ii01.org (CAUTION: contains philosophy, may cause heads to spin)=============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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