This level confusion also seems to show up whenever people talk about “free will”- a computer was programmed by us, but its code can still do things that we never designed it for. Evolution sure as heck never designed people to make condoms and birth control pills, so why can’t a computer do things we never designed it to do?
If by “free will” we define any action that is not the intended behaviour of the original designer, then yes. And it actually does fit the bill relatively well, IMO—it is an emergent behaviour (usually) experienced during unexpected values appearing somewhere in the code. And just like with us, the behaviour is deterministic, and at the same time, pretty much impossible to predict in some cases :D
Multi-threading issues are a nice example—everything works very well in isolation, and breaks down in a real production enviroment.
This level confusion also seems to show up whenever people talk about “free will”- a computer was programmed by us, but its code can still do things that we never designed it for. Evolution sure as heck never designed people to make condoms and birth control pills, so why can’t a computer do things we never designed it to do?
Are bugs free will?
If by “free will” we define any action that is not the intended behaviour of the original designer, then yes. And it actually does fit the bill relatively well, IMO—it is an emergent behaviour (usually) experienced during unexpected values appearing somewhere in the code. And just like with us, the behaviour is deterministic, and at the same time, pretty much impossible to predict in some cases :D
Multi-threading issues are a nice example—everything works very well in isolation, and breaks down in a real production enviroment.