Demystifying Paradoxes from Physics to Ethics Gary L
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Drescher_jkt.qxd 4/6/06 9:18 AM Page 1 PHILOSOPHY/COGNITIVE SCIENCE Drescher Gary L. Drescher good and real good and real Demystifying Paradoxes from Physics to Ethics Gary L. Drescher “A breathtakingly original assault on all the Big Issues! When philosophers get stuck in ruts, it often takes a brilliant out- Demystifying Paradoxes from Physics to Ethics sider to jolt them onto new ground, and Gary Drescher, coming to philosophy from AI, offers a startling feast of new In Good and Real, Gary Drescher examines a series of provocative ideas. I’m sure some of them are right, but I can’t tell which! Can you?” and real good paradoxes about consciousness, choice, ethics, quantum mechanics, —Daniel Dennett, author of Brainchildren, Sweet Dreams, and Breaking the Spell and other topics, in an effort to reconcile a purely mechanical view “Gary Drescher thinks that attempts to solve the deep problems that have stumped philosophers since time immemorial— of the universe with key aspects of our subjective impressions of or have caused them to resort to silly answers—have been thwarted largely by a set of relatively simple yet significant our own existence. misunderstandings in logic and physics. He is right about that, and his careful debunkings and explanations are clear and Many scientists suspect that the universe can ultimately be compelling. He also believes that by avoiding those errors, he has found solutions to the weightiest of those problems— described by a simple (perhaps even deterministic) formalism; in particular, the true nature of right and wrong and the true nature of subjective sensation and consciousness. Of that, all that is real unfolds mechanically according to that formalism. I am not convinced. But in making the attempt, he has provided a valuable and entertaining introduction to rational But how, then, is it possible for us to be conscious, or to make thinking in a variety of fields.” genuine choices? And how can there be an ethical dimension —David Deutsch, University of Oxford, author of The Fabric of Reality to such choices? Drescher sketches computational models of “In an extraordinary tour de force, Drescher has written a powerful defense of rationalism and of a deterministic universe. consciousness, choice, and subjunctive reasoning— what would He systematically examines and dismantles the arguments against a mechanical view of the universe and the mind. happen if this or that were to occur?— to show how such phenomena Drescher shows how a computational perspective enables us to solve the long-standing mysteries of the real and the are compatible with a mechanical, even deterministic universe. good; how the physical world, consciousness, and free choice arise from deterministic mechanisms; and how the universe Analyses of Newcomb’s Problem (a paradox about choice) and the and everything (and everyone) in it is essentially a computation. In contrast to a prevailing relativism, Drescher demon- Prisoner’s Dilemma (a paradox about self-interest vs. altruism, strates that both truth and ethics can be placed on a rational foundation.” arguably reducible to Newcomb’s Problem) help bring the problems —Uri Wilensky, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University, and author of the NetLogo multiagent and proposed solutions into focus. Regarding quantum mechanics, modeling environment Drescher builds on Everett’s relative-state formulation— but pres- GARY L. DRESCHER is an independent scholar and was recently ents a simplified formalism, accessible to laypersons— to argue that, Visiting Fellow at the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. contrary to some popular impressions, quantum mechanics is com- He received his Ph.D. in computer science from MIT in 1989 and is the patible with an objective, deterministic physical reality, and that author of Made-Up Minds: A Constructivist Approach to Artificial there is no special connection between quantum phenomena and Intelligence (MIT Press, 1991). 0-262-04233-9 The MIT Press consciousness. Massachusetts Institute of Technology In each of several disparate but intertwined topics ranging from A Bradford Book Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 physics to ethics, Drescher argues that a missing technical linchpin http://mitpress.mit.edu can make the quest for objectivity seem impossible, until the elusive technical fix is at hand. COVER IMAGE Modification of The Great Thinker by Auguste Rodin. Photograph by Mario Carrieri courtesy of Gruppo Mondiale Est. Good and Real Good and Real Demystifying Paradoxes from Physics to Ethics Gary L. Drescher A Bradford Book The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England ( 2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected] or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. This book was set in Stone Serif and Stone Sans on 3B2 by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong, and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Drescher, Gary L. Good and real : demystifying paradoxes from physics to ethics / Gary L. Drescher. p. cm. ‘‘A Bradford book.’’ Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-04233-9 (hc : alk. paper) 1. Mechanism (Philosophy). 2. Philosophy of mind. 3. Ethics. I. Title. BD553.D74 2006 146 0.6—dc22 2005056169 Chapter 4 is a revision of ‘‘Demystifying Quantum Mechanics: A Simple Universe with Quantum Uncertainty,’’ by Gary L. Drescher. ( 1991 by Complex Systems Pub- lications, Inc. 10987654321 In memory of Irving E. Drescher Yet the magical imagery born of the mind is just the same carved out of stone. —Thomas Zimmerman Contents Preface xiii 1 Introduction: Framing the Big Picture 1 1.1 Us and the Universe 1 1.2 Ground Rules and Terms of Discussion 12 1.2.1 Unbending the Truth 12 1.2.2 Definitions and Semantic Sleight of Hand 15 1.2.3 Paradoxes: When Arguments Collide 21 1.3 Right Side Up (How to Read This Book) 32 2 Dust to Lust: How Groups of Atoms Can Think and Feel 35 2.1 The Case against Ghosts 37 2.2 Cartesian Camcorders, Big Red Rock-Eaters, and the Light in the Refrigerator 43 2.3 The Problematic Arbitrariness of Representation 52 2.4 Origins of Purpose and Value 60 2.4.1 Pursuing Goals: Situation-Action versus Prediction-Value Machinery 62 2.4.2 Consciousness of Value 74 2.5 Some Contrasts 79 2.5.1 Chomsky and the Missing Body 79 2.5.2 Qualia and Gensyms 80 2.5.3 Misinterpreting Go¨del’s Theorem 83 2.6 Summary 88 3 Going without the Flow: The Frozen Stream of Time 91 3.1 Static Spacetime 91 3.2 Time Symmetry 96 3.3 Summary 118 4 Quantum Certainty 123 4.1 The Quantum Paradox 123 4.1.1 The Double-Slit Experiment 125 x Contents 4.1.2 The Interference–Observation Duality 127 4.1.3 Interpretations: Copenhagen and Everett 128 4.2 Illustrating Quantum Mechanics with Artificial Universes 131 4.2.1 U1: Configuration Space for a ‘‘Classical’’ Universe 131 4.2.2 U2: A Universe with Noninterfering Superpositions 133 4.2.3 U3: A Quantish Artificial Universe 136 4.2.4 Successive Measurements in U3 141 4.3 Quantumlike Properties of Quantish Physics 146 4.3.1 Apparently Nondeterministic Outcomes and the Uncertainty Principle 146 4.3.2 Interference of Superposed States 154 4.3.3 Blocking Interference via Observation 156 4.3.4 Disproving Hidden-Variable Theories: The EPR Experiment 160 4.4 Many Worlds or Quantum Collapse? 167 4.5 Summary 176 5 Deterministic Choice, Part 1: Inalterability Does Not Imply Futility 179 5.1 The Paradox of Choice without Change 180 5.2 Means–End Relations 183 5.3 Choice Machines 188 5.4 Acausal Means–End Links: Choosing Past States 193 5.5 Street-Crossing Scenario: Avoiding Evidentialist Excess 196 5.6 Subjunctive Means–End Recognition 206 5.6.1 Choice Machines and Schemas 206 5.6.2 The Evidentialist Problem with Schemas 209 5.6.3 The Explaining-Away Principle: Restraining Evidentialism 211 5.6.4 Would-ness 214 5.6.5 Contrasts: Lewis’s Possible Worlds, and Pearl’s Causality 219 5.7 Summary 222 6 Deterministic Choice, Part 2: Newcomb’s Problem and Beyond 225 6.1 Newcomb’s Problem 225 6.2 Newcomb’s Problem with Transparent Boxes 238 6.2.1 Foreknowledge in the Street-Crossing Scenario 242 6.2.2 Foreknowledge in Newcomb’s Problem 249 6.2.3 Or What If the Answer Is Not Built In? 255 6.2.4 Contrast: Kavka’s Toxin Problem 258 6.3 Newcomb’s Problem with a Dual Simulation 260 6.4 Summary 268 7 Deriving Ought from Is 273 7.1 From Newcomb’s Problem to the Prisoner’s Dilemma 274 7.2 Subjunctive Reciprocity 282 7.2.1 Reciprocal Altruism Meets the Categorical Imperative 283 7.2.2 Conditions for Subjunctive Reciprocity 285 Contents xi 7.2.3 Consciousness and Subjunctive Reciprocity 294 7.3 Ramifications beyond Altruism 296 7.3.1 Reciprocity, Retribution, and Responsibility 296 7.3.2 Cooperation When Each Individual’s Influence Is Negligible 298 7.3.3 Reconciling Principle with Pragmatism 300 7.3.4 Self-Reciprocity 301 7.3.5 Contrasts: Ainslie, Searle, and Kurzweil 307 7.4 But Can’t We Simply Get Along? (Putting Reason in Its Place) 311 7.5 Summary 319 8 The Anticlimactic Meaning of Life 321 8.1 Something for Nothing 323 8.2 On Our Own 327 8.3 So Here We Are 330 References 333 Index 339 Preface I came of age in the provocative environment of the MIT Artificial Intelli- gence Laboratory in the 1970s, a time of excitement and optimism about the imminent prospect of understanding and replicating the machinery of the human mind.