Up@dawn 2.0

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence? Part 2 -- Final Project (17.2)

Welcome back to my second installment of the “Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence.” So we left off on the question of whether or not the decisions made by The Patriot artificial intelligence would be the “right” decisions. You would think, “What makes them think we’re not qualified to make our decisions about life and what should be passed on?”  


Checkout the 2nd part of the video.




“I’ll decide for myself!”

But is that really your own idea? The Patriots aim at attacking whether or not humans have freewill or not which is something I have asked myself plenty of times. Are the decisions we make really something truly influenced by our own personality or is it influenced by something else we deem as our own will. That is their main argument on why they don’t think we have freewill. The Patriots said, “You lack the qualifications to exercise freewill.” Why? At the end of the day, we are bias and believe a certain way.

Are we capable of deciding what is right and wrong? Ultimately we are out to lookout for ourselves. We place blame on other things to make ourselves feel better. Ever talk yourself into believing something just so you can feel better about yourself? Say you’re waiting at the bus stop and the bus finally arrives. Everybody is getting on and you end put taking the last spot, leaving others to wait for the next bus. To escape from the guilt of filling that last spot, you say to yourself, “oh the next bus will come soon,” so now you don’t feel as bad. That’s just my little interpretation of “talking yourself” into something. The game uses an example of finding convenient truth as shown in the video. The character you play as is lied to by his loved one but he pretended to be understanding and sensitive to her feelings; not to protect her feelings, but to shield him from facing the truth. He accepted the fiction that was made for him.

Are their arguments wrong? We have to understand that we can be controlled just like any other living creature. Our opinions and emotions can be manipulated by our own conscience and others.

That brings up the next topic I want to touch bases on.

Throughout the game, your assignments are planned out by The Patriots. Their goal in this particular mission is to gain information on how to control human behavior and consciousness. By establishing a scenario in the form of a mission we must accomplish, they have exercised their ability to control you— the player. By following the mission, it shows that humans can be manipulated when placed in the right situation— taken control by someone else’s will. And this can be applied to everything we do in life. We play the role of someone else’s will all the time. With the right incentives, we openly accept the will of someone else. You go to work and you are at the will of your boss because you want to get paid. You are at the will of your professors if you want to pass the course. You are at the will of whoever you signed a lease with if you want to live in an apartment. It’s everywhere. So easily are we susceptible to someone else’s will to have conveniences.

But don’t let these truths let you down!

It is ultimately up to US to decide which truths we accept and what roles we play in life. Whatever “will” we succumb to, know that the choices made were under your own circumstances. We choose who we want to be in life. Whether or not it is the influence of someone else, we decide what we want to influence us. We carve our own destination in life. We all have our own unique ethical standpoints on what is right or wrong. The decisions you make are YOURS and no one can take that away from you. To me that is freewill.

I’m going to let you decide whether the decisions of The Patriots are right or wrong because whatever you interpret out of all this is yours.


Stand up for what you believe in because much like the scenario in this video game, there are real-world forces out there who are out to control freewill whether you like it or not. It is a truth that we must accept that not everyone is out for our best interests. This world we live in is a dark and nasty place and there is always someone out there who hopes to benefit from your triumphs and defeats. But we have the freedom to allow these forces to take advantage of us. There is light in this world— it is up to us to stand up for what is right and escape the clutches of censorship and manipulation. You are in control of your own destiny. So be skeptical of what you want to accept as truth. Don’t sacrifice your “self” for convenient truths.





Some men just want to watch the world burn…

2 comments:

  1. (16-2) I have to say that I agree entirely. I think that people, on the whole, tend to accept things as "truth" without ever investigating, wondering, or questioning. I believe you should try to balance what you've been told and what you believe with a little philosophy. You should excercise your free will as much as you see fit.

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  2. "Are the decisions we make really something truly influenced by our own personality" - they could be, and our personality could still be determined by forces and factors beyond personal control. The bigger question is whether personality itself can be influenced by our decisions.

    "Don’t sacrifice your “self” for convenient truths" - good advice, even if "self" is more conceptual than empirical.

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