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What is the difference?
Categories.
An algorithm is a (usually iterative) rule or set of rules which generates an output from an input. When we make decisions, we do not necessarily follow rules. We can do that (after all, we invented algorithms :) ), but we're always free to decide otherwise. (We don't even necessarily need an input (a priori reasoning).)
Cutting to the chase, it all revolves around whether we have free will. Decisions are subject to free will, which machines categorically cannot have.
Needless to say, it's a rather complex philosophical topic with a long history.
Oliver Schick-
So I may be getting a little out of my depth here but....
An algorithm is a (usually iterative) rule or set of rules which generates an output from an input.
Who decides what rules the computer should follow? I think this is us and that is the decision I refer to. At some point somewhere a human has programmed something into the computer that could, theoretically, result in the loss of life or the choice of one life over another. (?)
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Cutting to the chase, it all revolves around whether we have free will. Decisions are subject to free will, which machines categorically cannot have.
Personally I think neither from a Judaic philosophical (I refer to the concept of Divine providence or השגחה פרטית and especially Leiner's treatice "Mei Hashiloach") nor neuro-scientific (I refer here to Libet's pioneering work) view do humans have free will. What they have is the belief or illusion of free will.
While free will can not exist without the capacity to make decisions, the ability to make decisions does not demand free will. Decisions are made all the time, inclusive of the belief or illusion of a free will.
Exodus 6:2-9:35
" But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that I may multiply My signs and marvels in the land of Egypt. 4 When Pharaoh does not heed you, I will lay My hand upon Egypt and deliver My ranks, My people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with extraordinary chastisements. 5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand over Egypt and bring out the Israelites from their midst." 6 This Moses and Aaron did; as the Lord commanded them, so they did. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they made their demand on Pharaoh."http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027714001462
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/finding-free-will/
dst2
EdwardZ
What is the difference?