Consciousness and Free Will Dec 22 '07    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Books Rick Bragg - Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg From $6 260 Drum Machine Patterns From $8 The Bottom Line Think more about the purpose of consciousness and how it applies to free will. I was watching a TV show about modern robots a few months ago and it got me thinking about free will. In this documentary the computer programmers were at a loss because they were creating "dumb" robots. In other words the robots that they were creating were very linear. They only understood voice commands (if at that) and that was it. They definitely could NOT think for themselves. But then these scientists discovered a breakthrough. They programmed these robots to make "choices" for themselves. In other words, they were given the options of choosing among five options the most efficient way to grap ahold of an object. So this got me thinking. I came to the conclusions that that must be the reason that intelligent life has evolved with concsiousness. You see, every day if not every micro-second we are given the option to choose among many if not an INFINITE array of choices. It's like in the alternate-reality theory of quantum mechanics. This theory postulated that at every juncture in time reality splits off into an infinite brach with infinite potential realities that we COULD HAVE chosen from. So, in my opinion, with consciousness and hence with the imagination that goes along with it, we are able to visualize or imagine those same alternate realities. At every micro-second we are bombarded with the potential to choose among an infinite veriety of realities and that's what we do. We choose. We decide. And a linear, one dimensional robot with NO consciousness and no imagination is just that; an automoton. It's as stupid as a rock. It can't think for itself. It can't decide. So I think that what scientitsts will eventually discover is that for them to creat a truly scentient AI lifeform they will INEVITABLY have to endow it with consciousness. How scientists will be able to do this is beyond me and it will probably take those programmers many years to do so. But I think that some day, some way, scientists will eventually create a truly conscious artificial life-form. My arguement also raises another point. In my opinion, ALL of life is conscious. By this I mean, mamals, fish, starfish, sqids, reptiles and even plants and bacteria and probably even viruses. Why I believe this is severl-fold. I think that the fundamental function of consciousness is adaption. It's the ability to learn from your mistakes and to make new choices. So, in my opinion, if a lifeform can do this than it probably has consciousness. One time I was watching Scientific America Frontiers with Alan Alda. On that show he was interviewing a dog trainer, The dog trainer had a dog and he was teaching it new tricks to learn. The dog kept learning. He kept adapting. He kept barking, or jumping, or tapping his master until he learned the new trick. In my opinion that is DEFINITELY proof of consciousnes. So if plants or viruses or bacterium can choose-if they can learn, adapt, and grow-they in my opinion one day scientists will discover that they have evolved with consciousness. Another reason why I believe that ALL life has cosciousness is because consciousness is like water; it seeks it's own level. In other words, it is FAR TO complicated and would take TOO MUCH memory compacity to evolve like a modern day computer. I think that if we evolved like this are brains would be HUMUNGOUS! Our craniums would have to be as large as a small car to do all that we are capable of doing and I still believe that such a "brain" would not have free will or consciousness. So another reason why I belive this is for the brain to save space. It takes less volume for a brain like ours to evolve with the capacity to bulid a fire or to build an atom bomb or to plan a space shuttle launch. I hope you get the idea. Another proof for consciousness is that if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck them it must be the real thing. In other words if a lifeform can manipulate it's environment ( as with hands, or paws ) and if it can communicate ( and by this I mean the most basic type of communication) as with the barks of dogs or the tweets of birds, then I think that it has evolved the use of consciousness. Again this would be the proof of free will. Now don't get me wrong. I am NOT saying that a dog or a virus is capable of creating a car or a space shuttle. I'm NOT even saying that it even HAS or uses it's capacity for free will. I'm just saying that other life-forms as we know it have the CAPACITY or the potential of free will. In my opinion animals may not be as smart as us, but in my opinion they can choose. They can adapt. So that is proof of consciousness in my book. In my opinion first came the cup and then came the water. In other words, first the POTENTIAL of free will had to evolve and then our ability to USE that free will via consciousness evolved in us as well. So that's it. Let me know what you think on the subject. I'll be anxiously awaiting your replies. Thank you. Sincerely, SteveHW

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