RE: virus: MEME UPDATE: To Censor Or Not?

Schneider John (JSCHNEID@hanoverdirect.com)
Wed, 18 Dec 1996 01:58:16 -0500

Dave wrote:
> You hit my nail on the head. I was actually talking to my dad this
> lunchtime (he was in the area and dropped by), and he said pretty
> much the same thing. BUT he also reckons that Incompleteness in
> computing systems implies... FREEWILL! Oh God! I'm changing my
> surname, and I'll return to this when I've read a bit more
> Hofstadter. If anyone else wants to dip in one way or the other
> (Godel supporting/opposing existence of freewill)... please do.

Don't worry: only 2/7 of my immediate family is not devoutly
Roman Catholic. Maybe I'll change my name as well. Anyway...
I'm afraid the arguments that try to make freewill follow from
Godel are beyond me.

My own thoughts on the subject are few, but I have wondered if:
a deterministic self-aware system living in a quantum (uncertain)
world, would be indistinguishable from a freewilled being living
in a deterministic world. (That is only speculatory.)
This might be similar to what you were saying originally,
or perhaps to what your dad was saying over lunch.

- JPSchneider
- jschneid@hanoverdirect.com