4:38 I think it’s about time that we accept that the human brain is a machine. A complicated machine, 4:44 a machine we don’t fully understand, a machine that’s still very different from the machines 4:49 we can build. But a machine, nevertheless. When I was a student, I struggled with this 4:55 a lot. Because what’s the point of doing anything if my entire life was written 5:00 already in the initial conditions of the Big Bang. And to the extent that it wasn’t, 5:05 I can’t do anything about it. Existential dread, brought to you by physics 101.The problem, as she explains it at 2:25, is that all known theories of science are a combination of determinism and randomness.
Well yes, that is what scientific theories do. They predict things, and call the difference random. All theories are a combination of determinism and randomness, because that is how we define theories.
Her existential dread has nothing to do with Physics 101. Aristotle could have said the same thing.
There are theologians who deduce the existence of God from first principles, and then declare that God is all-powerful and all-knowing, and therefore we are all mindless automatons carrying out God's will, with no free will.
I cannot prove those theologians wrong, or Dr. Bee wrong. But I can say that it is just a belief, and a very depressing belief, that is not grounded in science, experience, the Bible, or anything else. I consider it a mental disorder, as one cannot ba conscious, free, and functional human being and believe such nonsense.
Update: Today's video about the origin is gold is interesting. Recent research showed that gold is not from supernova explosions, but from neutron star mergers and magnetar flares.
Update: She posted another free will video. She does not believe humans have free will, so of course she says AI does not either. She cites a philosopher says AI LLMs have basic agency, but not autonomous agency. Philosophers have a whole language for discussing the illusion of free will, even if they believe in determinism.
If your 'beliefs' lead you into ANY flavor of nihilism, the absence of meaning, purpose, and value, then walk away, and don't look back. No matter how clever or educated the spiel may sound.
ReplyDeletePeople who don't believe they can, don't. It isn't just semantics.
Despair no matter how it is couched, is not useful to achieving anything but apathy, suicide, poor health and an early death.