This is my two-cents on an in-class discussion taken outside the class room for homework.
First, I'm going to agree that one does not really have free will. My definition of free will is on a more social level-meaning that free will allows one to choose their job, what to eat and when to eat it, what school they attend, how hard they work. Does free will mean that I can over come my instincts? I don't believe so. Even when a person commits suicide, didn't they come to that conclusion based upon life events, memories, reasons--information--that this is what come next? When a person 'chooses' to continually stop eating, aren't they forcing themselves from doing what is instinctual based off of social pressure? Whenever a human does something that is against instinct, it is not because of free will but rather a string of events and memories that convinces them not to do so.
Why can't a robot do this? After it's been elaborately programmed and goes about doing it's purpose and experiencing life one day at a time, why can't it be considered living? Eventually, the robot will make choices based off of it's experiences just like we do. Go to school, study, graduate, go to college, study, graduate, get a job, buy a car, then a house, etc. What will it go to school for? Well, this might be easier for a robot as it is programmed to know it's purpose where humans must search for theirs. However, based on it's abilities the robot would then have to choose. Get a career that will allow it to make more money? Choose a career that will benefit the community? Both are good and reasonable choices. However, only through it's experiences will a person or a robot make a choice.
Our memories and experiences simply make a large database of information to sort through and organize. Our lives are built upon this information that we use to make decisions. What is the most rational why to do this or that? So my question is do we create robots and search for the answers of artificial intelligence and others to find/create a better us/self/human?
