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A chess problem solvable by intuition but not by computers
All of this physics is quite interesting, but since my training is in metaphysics I must conclude that material substance does not exist and that all reality is mind.
Or, as we used to say in the philosophy department 50 years ago, "no matter, never mind".
All of this physics is quite interesting, but since my training is in metaphysics I must conclude that material substance does not exist and that all reality is mind.
How would a metaphysicist account for the consequences of stepping off a curb directly into the path of an oncoming car?
Re: A chess problem solvable by intuition but not by computers
All of this physics is quite interesting, but since my training is in metaphysics I must conclude that material substance does not exist and that all reality is mind.
Well yes, that was sort of my point. The same logic goes to an electron striking the screen in a double slit experiment. The electron might hit one point on the screen or another, you cannot predict as an individual electron. But after millins of electrons you get a clear interference pattern that you can precisely model mathematically. But does your dice in your example really shows free will when it rolls a 6 instead of a 2? Does the electron? If no, how is the bacteria any different? And if it isn't, how is a person?
It is not my field of study specifically, but I always thought it's a little preposterous to extrapolate one subatomic phenomenon to an organism composed of billions of billons of billions of atoms. The scales are so vastly different as to warrant some healthy skepticism (in my humble opinion). But physicists do that all the time and it seems they don't get challenged by the biologists.
Given all that, how can we account for any consistency in human behavior? Why wouldn't that same breeze make one change from being politically left to politically right....sometimes?
If the probability you mention reaches 100% at certain levels of input, could the brain be feeding certain neurons with the level of stimulation required to ensure those neurons fire (in response to some outside stimuli)? And if yes, could it be that during infancy and childhood, the brain is feeding specific neurons with a lower stimulation level in order to allow them to "possibly fire".... and for the neurons that do fire, if another part of the brain decodes the outcome as "good" or at least "not bad", something in the brain "remembers" that those particular neurons should be supplied with the REQUIRED stimulation to fire from that point on in response to the same stimuli? Could this be the process of learning?
1) Said breeze could but it is highly unlikely, unless there are extenuating circumstances. The brain also makes its decisions based on decisions it has made in the past. The more often it has made the same decision the more often it will make the same decision again. Neurologists refer to this as plasticity of our though processes. The more ingrained our thought processes are the more "force" is needed to exert change. In my example I gave two rather arbitrary choices that have little impact one way or another. The breeze in question could affect the decision because the options are so evenly balanced. On the other hand changing from politically right to politically left could be the difference of said breeze while reading another one of Trumps tweets. But I digress. :p
2) If I understand what I read about neuroscience, if a given firing pattern in the brain creates a favorable result, a positive feedback system in the brain encourages the growth of neuroreceptors in the brain, thus increasing the flow of dopamines and increasing the likelyhood of repeating the firing pattern. This starts from the point when the first neurons start triggering in the fetus. Initially these are very simple responses to very simple stimuli (neurons make heart beat => blood flows => neurons get nourished), but as neural complexity increases so do the variety of inputs and levels of abstraction that generate positive feedback. The growth of neural pathways and new firing patterns in the brain in response to feedback constitutes learning. The oldest pathways with the greatest degree of reinforcement are the hardest to change. But the initial growth of pathways is influenced by chaos theory.
Perhaps in your example the "decision" of an individual bacteria of when (if ever) to switch from metabolizing glucose to metabolizing fructose as the fructose to glucose ratio increases is akin to an individual roll of N 6-sided dice. The individual roll could sum up to any total between N and (N*6) inclusive at any time, so that roll has "free will". But as you increase the number of times rolling the N dice, a consistent and repeatable probabilistic pattern of outcomes emerges, just as the several million bacteria will decide in a consistent and predictable pattern based on the actual fructose to glucose ratio.
Well yes, that was sort of my point. The same logic goes to an electron striking the screen in a double slit experiment. The electron might hit one point on the screen or another, you cannot predict as an individual electron. But after millins of electrons you get a clear interference pattern that you can precisely model mathematically. But does your dice in your example really shows free will when it rolls a 6 instead of a 2? Does the electron? If no, how is the bacteria any different? And if it isn't, how is a person?
Re: A chess problem solvable by intuition but not by computers
I have a vague memory of a game that Kasparov won against a computer (Deep Blue?) where there were facing Pawn chains from middle and before of the board, maybe the Q or K file over to maybe the h-file. Can anyone present that game. I would like to find it again. It seemed obvious that White would win, but the horizon prevented the computer from knowing that. I would like to put that position into my software to determine if it could tell today that White was winning.
Kind of reminds me of a game I played long ago against an Alekhine's Defence player. After I won, thanks to an extra pawn, in the post-mortem every other word my opponent said was "blockade" - but he never did succeed in doing so, by the time the analysis was done. :)
It sounds to me like he grabbed the wrong knight on move one.
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