Eric,
I am glad to find that someone else shares my interest in the matter of determinism. I find this topic incredibly fascinating, and the way you include the human’s capacity or potential to read someone’s mind to influence a predestined path for them is very thought provoking. I encourage you to read my post of determinism as well. You can find it all the way at the bottom of my page, it should be the first post. One website that may intrigue you and a website that helped my research on this topic is, https://labs.psych.ucsb.edu/schooler/jonathan/sites/labs.psych.ucsb.edu.schooler.jonathan/files/pubs/what_science_tell_us.pdf. Thank you for your post.

-Thomas K.

The easy resolution is the realization that predictions are not incompatible with free will. Such a claim is ridiculous. If I can predict the way a congressman will vote based on his party affiliation, is he suddenly some nonhuman agent with no will of his own?

The natural conclusion of deterministic arguments always comes down to self-defeating, incoherent assertions like the above.

Fundamentally, making accurate predictions is not the same as stripping someone of the choice to make those predictions. Most importantly, one must understand that the future is merely a logical construction. The future does not exist. It has no material presence. Thus, making a claim about it does not have any material consequence. Thus, prediction does not strip people of free will.

Hey Eric,
I think the topic your writing about is absolutely fascinating! I found an article https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/melding-mind-and-machine-how-close-are-we/ that examines a similar topic. It discusses the possibility that our minds and machines will one day come to work together. When reading your to essays in conjunction, I think of a world where we can use those machines that predict us to use in everyday situations, pushing human progress to a brand new level.
Awesome job!
Tony

I never thought about this issue this way, it can be tied with people tastes in music especially, for example I listen to Metal and everyone who doesn’t know me personally but does know I listen to metal think and or believe im a satanist ( definitely am not one). And i’ll admit to thinking that people that listen to more modern music like pop and rap are beneath me and both sides cant meet in the middle and agree with something.

Hi Eric,
I found this post to be interesting, it really got me thinking on how the internet might influence us and our thinking. We spend so much time on the internet reading articles, and social media and so on. I agree with your last paragraph, it is our responsibility to keep thinking and challenging our brain.

Eric, I find your topic concerning the ethical responsibilities of artificial intelligence intriguing, and I would like to help you further your research. After digging around a little bit, I came across this website that holds five basic principals of robotics, similar to those you have already presented:

“Robots should not be designed as weapons, except for national security reasons.
Robots should be designed and operated to comply with existing law, including privacy.
Robots are products: as with other products, they should be designed to be safe and secure.
Robots are manufactured artefacts: the illusion of emotions and intent should not be used to exploit vulnerable users.
It should be possible to find out who is responsible for any robot.”

I feel as though you can do a lot more with this topic, and I would like to see what research you will present in the future. Thank you for sharing.

Eric, your post is interesting. It strikes at the fundamental role of AI within our society, and how it will continue to develop. To what extent will humans implement AI into our everyday lives? Will AI come to dominate everyday life to the extent where our lives will become dictated, or reliant on AI? Regarding Moral Machines, I believe the AI will place emphasis, if AI were to ever come into this situation, on the productivity of the groups in question. However, resolving the issue will require humans to actively acknowledge that we are relinquishing a part of humanity. We are empirically defining one life as more valuable than another, and implementing our beliefs into the computer. Here’s a link to the future of ethics that I found interesting:

Towards a Code of Ethics in Artificial Intelligence with Paula Boddington