Free Will: Perspectives from Engineering and Computer Science

Free Will and Determinism Track

George Thomas, Ph.D., Engineering and Computer Science

Daniel Grissom, Ph.D., Engineering and Computer Science

Rick Sturdivant, Ph.D., Engineering and Computer Science

James Yeh, Ph.D., Engineering and Computer Science

In this presentation, four faculty members from the Department of Engineering and Computer Science examine aspects of the concept of free will from the perspectives of their specific disciplinary specialties. Computational complexity and emergence theories as applied to free will are explored, and the possibility for nondeterministic emergent behavior in artificial intelligence is examined. Free will is also examined by analogy with autonomous virtual worlds that are created by software. A distinction is drawn between purposedriven free will and erratic or licentious behavior, using autonomous engineering systems as an example.