#determinacy

[backtonow]

Consciousness seems to be about having a single determined chain of events in one direction of time (memory) and multiple possible paths in the other (free agency). The opposite of which seems to be amnesia and determinacy, the inability to see and act.

[curiousaboutcreativity]

Machines, when they operate properly, are not merely law abiding; they are embodiments of law. (40)

Weizenbaum J. 1984. Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgement to calculation. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

[darimataini]

Find the Right Message, Target That Message

A campaign is a communication process  which is find the right message, target that message to the right group and repeat that message again and again.

Unfortunately, the actual planning process is much more difficult than simply following one rule. There…

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[fuckyeahdialectics]

The image of the progress to infinity is the straight line, at the two limits of which alone the infinite is, and always only is where the line — which is determinate being — is not, and which goes out beyond to this negation of its determinate being, that is, to the indeterminate; the image of true infinity, bent back into itself, becomes the circle, the line which has reached itself, which is closed and wholly present, without beginning and end.

G W F Hegel, The Science of Logic, (Prometheus/Humanity, trans. A.V Miller 1969), p.149

[illllllllllllli]

Nearly every article on the concept of free will, on its existence or not, conflates two concepts, determinism and determinacy. The first comes from the word "determine", that is, cause something to occur in a particular way. The second comes from a homonym, "determine", meaning establish accurately the state of things. That things are "indeterminate", unknowable or unpredictable, has nothing to do with whether they are "free". One easy way to figure out if your thoughts are the result of an individual volition or whether they are caused from elsewhere is to ask "Is my brain made up of atoms that are subject to the laws of physics?" If so, then you do not cause your own willing. If you have another kind of brain, then you do. It's really not very complicated.