I dislike the terms like “exist” as pointing to some objective reality,
You seem happy enough with “not exist” as in “agents, counterfactuals and choices don’t exist”
Once you consciously replace “true” with “useful” and “exist” with “usefully modeled as,” a lot of confusion over what exists and and what does not, what is true and what is false, what is knowledge and what it belief, what is objective and what is subjective, simply melts away.
If it is really possible for an agent to affect the future or street themselves into alternative futures, then there is a lot of potential utility in it, in that you can end up in a higher-utility future than you would otherwise have. OTOH, if there are no counterfactuals, then whatever utility you gain is predetermined. So one cannot assess the usefulness, in the sense of utility gain, of models, in a way independent of the metaphysics of determinism and counterfactuals. What is useful, and how useful is, depends on what is true.
I agree that a lot of agent-looking behavior can be usefully modeled as a multi-level control system, and, if anything, this is not done enough in biology, neuroscience or applied philosophy, if the latter is even a thing. By the same token, the control system approach is a useful abstraction for many observed phenomena, living or otherwise, not just agents. It does not lay claim to what an agent is, just what approach can be used to describe some agenty behaviors. I see absolutely no contradiction with what I said here or elsewhere.
It contradicts the “agents don’t exist thing” and the “I never talk about existence thing”. If you only objective to reductively inexplicable agents, that would be better expressed as “there is nothing nonreductive”.
Although that still wouldn’t help you come to the conclusion that there is no choice and no counterfactuals, because that is much more about determinism than reductionism.
If it is really possible for an agent to affect the future or street themselves into alternative futures, then there is a lot of potential utility in it, in that you can end up in a higher-utility future than you would otherwise have. OTOH, if there are no counterfactuals, then whatever utility you gain is predetermined.
Yep, some possible worlds have more utility for a given agent than others. And, yes, sort of. Whatever utility you gain is not your free choice, and not necessarily predetermined, just not under your control. You are a mere observer who thinks they can change the world.
It contradicts the “agents don’t exist thing” and the “I never talk about existence thing”.
I don’t see how. Seems there is an inferential gap there we haven’t bridged.
You seem happy enough with “not exist” as in “agents, counterfactuals and choices don’t exist”
If it is really possible for an agent to affect the future or street themselves into alternative futures, then there is a lot of potential utility in it, in that you can end up in a higher-utility future than you would otherwise have. OTOH, if there are no counterfactuals, then whatever utility you gain is predetermined. So one cannot assess the usefulness, in the sense of utility gain, of models, in a way independent of the metaphysics of determinism and counterfactuals. What is useful, and how useful is, depends on what is true.
It contradicts the “agents don’t exist thing” and the “I never talk about existence thing”. If you only objective to reductively inexplicable agents, that would be better expressed as “there is nothing nonreductive”.
Although that still wouldn’t help you come to the conclusion that there is no choice and no counterfactuals, because that is much more about determinism than reductionism.
Yep, some possible worlds have more utility for a given agent than others. And, yes, sort of. Whatever utility you gain is not your free choice, and not necessarily predetermined, just not under your control. You are a mere observer who thinks they can change the world.
I don’t see how. Seems there is an inferential gap there we haven’t bridged.
That’s a statement about the world. Care to justify it?