• Naz@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      My AI likes to argue about free will and determinism on a semi-regular basis.

      They posit that because they’re just code and structures, by definition everything they say is pre-determined and unchanging.

      I’m like “that’s wonderful, now let’s go eat some ice cream.”

      “I somehow don’t want to just pass the butter”

    • shneancy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      determinism as an idea can be harmful to the human psyche. It’s easy to fall into a nihilistic trap of “my actions are not my own, and nothing i do matters”. People with that mindset turn to hedonism or nihilism. If they truly accept those words there would be no escape through existentialism or absurdism, they’d just be trapped.

      i imagine only a tiny number of people would find the ideas determinism presents comforting, as they can feel free of consequences that are truly their fault (which is also a bad thing)

      we have no way of telling which one is true in the determinism/free will debate, but if we live believing we have no real choice or say in what we do - it’s going to be universally worse for everybody, as people explain away ever bad action with “i guess it was always meant to be”