ajaysinghgoshiyal

Please read Yahoo Answers which i provided earlier. It is some where near the end of the article.

I think that spirituality answers more questions about life than science does. Live and learn is my philosophy.

They actually do think. Search google for "do animals think" and click on the link titled "Harvard Gazette". But they cannot imagine like us. Please check "Yahoo Answers" in the above search. There is a difference between will and potential. We are free to make choices and take actions but obviously in a rather limited context.

If free will does not exist, then we can kill any one and use the twinkie defense to say that my brain did it and not me and therefore be absolved of my actions. if free will does actually exist, then i am free to make choices and be held morally responsible for all my actions. Which language does an animal think in is my question if you say they can think. I am sorry that what i wrote was wrong only in the sense that i forgot to mention they can and do make choices.

I am very sorry that i forgot to mention that animals can and do make choices. I simply meant that they cannot think just like your aforesaid protozoa.

To me basically speaking free will is the power that only we as intelligent humans have to determine our next course of action in our lives. Like choosing whether to reply to a particular message instead of another useless one. If my brain could type for me then all this would have been written while i was sleeping. Instead i make intelligent choices (use my free will) to type what i want and not what i dont want. If i cannot think i cannot be human. Nothing would differentiate me from an animal or a robot.

You stated it as clearly as i could have done. A one hundred percent correct again.

Does free will exist ? Any ideas ?

I am simply not saying that i am an automaton that possesses free will. I do not believe that a robot or machine can ever think let alone make decisions for us (watch i robot starring will smirh). If robots or machines or other such automatons had free will actually then science fiction would have become a reality. This is not possible right now. It may be possible in the distant future. But i do not fall into the camp of materialist reductionists so i cannot believe that 'yes they do have free will'. My views might sound heretic to some. I am open to debate over this.

The Turing Test has already failed. You can search for it in wiki pedia. I am not appending any text from there. Please see it yourself.

Yikes! Can you explain it to a lay man in simpler english?

Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test Please note that the capital letters are used to highlight relevant sections of the text since i cannot do this on my iphone only for now. Please also see the use of several dashes to highlight further relevant parts of the text.

Yes. It proves whatever it says. These are techniques that have to be applied to be seen and believed. It cannot be proven without trying it out first. Metaphysics as a discipline was a central part of academic inquiry and scholarly education even before the age of aristotle who considered it as "the Queen of Sciences"

This is equally incredulous. The differences are so very great. The day a computer can think or feel is not a matter of degree. It would remove the fiction from science fiction. Is anyone else going to contribute to this discussion? Or are we the only two left?

I quoted the book as evidence! What more proof could you want?

They are advanced. But they can not think or feel like us. We are not automated robots. We have free will and all that they dont. http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/ComputersCantThink.txt

Please dont take my word for it. We can agree to disagree on this. I suppose everyone has their own views. No one is god and has all the answers.

Thanks. It doesnt say anywhere that the computer can think or feel. The similiarities appear to end there. The day a computer becomes intelligent is a permanent experiment and a woo word known as science fiction.

I didnt get your point. Please kindly elaborate. I am claiming the brain is NOT A computer. Prove my claim as wrong. Fundamentally speaking,, what is the difference between an axon running between two neurons and a wire running between two screws? Can those screws and wires make a brain which might be nothing short of a robot? Enable the computer to think? Enable it to touch or even feel?

it is not a claim. you can get the book and see for yourself.

Neither is the brain a computer. A computer is made of totally different parts than a brain is. To my knowledge one is human and one is not. One can think and one cannot. A computer may be electrical but try adding chemicals to it and see what happens then! You will get a full parts list instantly!

look to meta physics for proof. you will surely find it in audrey craft davis's book.

I knew that already. What i was really asking is that how can something tangible/brain produce something intangible/mind. Its like saying that a kidney or liver can think! But how! Or going one step even further,, how exactly is all this "consciousness or qualia" generated from nothing but simple tissue?

The brain is indeed the source of the mind. But guess how. I have no idea. Can anyone provide some useful theories or do none exist.

I gathered from rereading the text that they were saying that the qualia cannot be accounted for by a physical brain state on any machine as of now. It suffices to say that the mind is possibly a distinct entity from the brain that produces it and that each can interact in both directions. But it sounds lunatic to me personally speaking. How are they saying these kind of things will require more research on my part before i throw in the towel already. Forgetting qualia just for a minute! How does matter (tangible brain) produce mind (intangible)???