Hopefully_Anonymous comments on Timeless Control - Less Wrong

19 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 07 June 2008 05:16AM

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Comment author: Hopefully_Anonymous 09 June 2008 01:11:20AM 0 points [-]

Frank, Demonstrated instances of illusory free-will don't seem to me to be harder or easier to get rid of than the many other demonstrated illusory cognitive experiences. So I don't see anything exceptional about them in that regard. Doug, that's where "choice of the gaps" comes into play in my opinion. Some commenters, maybe you included, are saying "a lot of what goes on the brain is unknown. Therefore let's call 'choice' or 'free will' a subset of that unknown part." It's very analogous, in my opinion, to "god of the gaps" arguments. Non-illusory choice/free will may end up being something that many of our brains want to believe exists, like a creator god, but doesn't seem to be backed by our better empirical methods for observing and modeling reality.