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Can you expand on a couple of things (Score:1)
I read, liked, and agreed with most everything. There were a couple of points that still have me scratching my head:
Why do humans have "self awareness"? Basically the same reason -- if can't communicate a concept of self and aggressively protect it, our real, actual physical self would easily be lost and we wouldn't have offspring.
Are you saying that self-awareness is necessary for self-defense and generating offspring? If so, it is an interesting perspective not restricted to humans. It makes m
Re: (Score:1)
Similar question: Why is self-preservation, generation of offspring, and the perpetuation of our race important?
It isn't just important -- it's inevitably important. Let me put it another way... let's assume that there was a creature for which self-preservation and offspring wasn't important. Since those weren't priorities, that creature died without offspring and then there were no more. End of story. It is only the entities which self-perpetuate (and protect that process) which continue to exist. Therefore any entity which exists and has existed continuously has those traits :)
You've missed the point(s) (Score:1)
My first point I attempt to make, is that perpetuation of the species is not at all necessary for "free will" to exist. Any sufficiently complex self-referencing system can be non-deterministic.
The second point is that it is extremely doubtful that "free will" is necessary for the perpetuation of the species. I take your own argument to the extreme. Take any lower form of life that is not extinct - does that life form have free will. Take it even further to the first self-replicating protein - did it have "free will".
In other words, I am not saying that the instinct for self-preservation isn't necessary for the perpetuation of the species. I am saying that "free will" isn't necessary to have the self-preservation instinct.
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