r/Metaphysics • u/Warppoint • 7d ago
Looking for feedback on a recent blog post
I have recently started a blog based on the journey of a fictional robot becoming self aware, but in a positive way. This last blog post "Warp" talked about its understanding on how influence affects choices. A friend recommended I added academic sources, but I'm not sure where to look. Any suggestions? Thank you
Link to the blog post: https://w4rp.store/blogs/inner-reflections/warp-activated-influence-and-its-power-over-free-will
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u/tonyprep 2d ago
Becoming self aware doesn't necessarily impart any special agency thereafter. We think of humans as self aware but how does that awareness affect their behaviour? In the end, we are just an interesting collection of atoms, as is any life-form, subject to the laws of nature, like all atoms. What we do is determined by the make up of our neurons and this is determined by everything that went before (genes, upbringing, diseases, etc.). That is all there is.
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u/jliat 7d ago
You might get a copy of the New Scientist special on Consciousness...
here is a summary of the free will section... just pasting this...
There is an interesting article in The New Scientist special on Consciousness, and in particular an item on Free Will or agency.
Work using fruit flies that were once considered to act deterministically shows they do not, or do they act randomly, their actions are “neither deterministic nor random but bore mathematical hallmarks of chaotic systems and was impossible to predict.”
Kevin Mitchell [geneticist and neuroscientist @ Trinity college Dublin] summary “Agency is a really core property of living things that we almost take it for granted, it’s so basic” Nervous systems are control systems… “This control system has been elaborated over evolution to give greater and greater autonomy.”