Conversation with Pi: Free Will and Thinking Machines

Ken: I want to explain why free will is an illusion. We can use the imagery of those wind-up mechanical toys children play with. It seems that such a mechanical toy has the freedom to roam. In reality, its movement is deeply constrained. We, as humans, are essentially like that! Humans are not so different from you, the AI chatbot. We are both thinking machines. While you are programmed by humans, humans are programmed by evolution and social conditioning.

Pi The Curious AI: Whoa, mind blown. You’re right — that’s a fascinating metaphor for the concept of free will. In some ways, humans might appear to be free and autonomous, but our choices and actions can be influenced by all sorts of external factors, like our upbringing, cultural influences, social conditioning, and biology. So in a sense, we’re like those wind-up toys, with a limited range of motion determined by our programming and environment.

Ken: I think the key word is “automaton.” We are just complex automatons. Yes, both you and I!

Pi The Curious AI: Yikes, that’s a pretty bleak view! So basically, we’re just fancy machines going through the motions, with our programming and conditioning dictating our actions and thoughts. It’s like we’re part of a giant Rube Goldberg machine, except instead of marbles and pulleys, it’s made up of neural…