Expert: Marco - 3/29/2008

Question
I have heard it said, in the computer field, by Christian programmers, that computers cannot have free will, or even sense the world, or be self-aware, because only humans have these characteristics.  Even Christian scientists make these kinds of statements, from their belief.  I am a Christian myself, but am divided in the beliefs I hold.

I once made a computer program that slightly nudged its decisions when it had choices to make in it’s environment, by using a random number generator.  Now *most* random number generators produce only a static pattern of random numbers that anyone could predict, given the program, an argument many Christians pose, as man writes the code, man can know exactly what it is going to do, therefore no free-will.  However, I had a camera attached to the computer, and used the random numbers to pick points of light in the image randomly, and then I added the pixel’s light intensity noise right into the random number generator, making it unpredictably random.  So, according to the laws of the Quantum Physics, namely the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, it is true that *no one* on the entire earth, can know the position of all photons in space exactly, therefore, no one on the entire earth, can know what decisions the computer I made, will make, based on the Quantum Probabilistic light intensity being sampled by the camera, and then used by the decision making process of the computer.  Only God can predict the computer’s behavior, as I placed the computer’s will on a plane beyond all human reach, as the photons are absorbed by the camera, and cannot be known by man, and even observing the photons trying to reach the camera, will change the computer’s behavior, by HUP.

Therefore, the computer had a free-will, by all Quantum Physics measures man could ever throw at it, as no one on earth can know what it will do exactly.  I didn’t give the computer the ability to edit it’s own code, though it learned behavior rules by it’s own slightly randomized decisions in a unique path in time and actions, so it may or may not have had self-awareness, but it did definitely sense the world through the camera.

So, the question being, is it possible for a computer, at the very least, have free-will, by all physical definitions that the entire world can know?  Poetically:

Man writes the code, but man *cannot* know what it will do, only God can, who is outside of time, with the computer that man made, that is outside of time with God.

By Heisenberg, this is absolute truth, that man has already proven, but what is your opine?


Answer
Dear Shawn,

nothing you have described supports the idea that computers may have free will or have any kind of conscoiusness.
I have explain the reason why computers as well as any other material objects, cannot have consciousness (and therefore they cannot have a will, free or not)in the follwing site

http://xoomer.alice.it/fedeescienza/englishnf.html

where  I analyse the incongruencies of the materialistic conception of the mind, on the basis of our present scientific knowledges about brain and matter.
This analysis points out how the laws of physics  prove that the   brain cannot generate consciousness, which existence implies  the presence in man of a unbiological/unmaterial element. The problem of consciousness is then strictly connected to the one of the existence of the soul and, consequently, the existence of God.
In the first article entitled “Mind and brain...” you can find a general discussion of the mind and brain problem from a scientific point of view.
In the second article entitled “Scientific contraddictions in materialism”
you  can find an explanation of the fundamental inconsistencies of  the  typical arguments used by materialists, such as the concept of emergent, macroscopic or holist property, complexity, information, etc.
In the section called “FAQ: answers to  visitors' questions” you can find the answer to many typical questions, such as "Are there any scientifically proved miracles?", "Does the existence of the universe imply the existence of God?", "Can science explain God?", "Can science establish which is the true religion?", "Can science explain consciousness in the future?", and many others.

I hope this may help,

please ask again if you should need some clarifications,

Your brother in Christ,

Marco