[MrBodangles]

Has it even been proven that insects retain “memories” as we know them? The question always leads back to 1 of 2 options. 1) insects are biological robots and their “instinct” is akin to a program executing code based on the I/O of their senses, or 2) the information required to perform their “instinctual” actions is carried genetically.

Option 1 has significant implications for humanity; are we just more complex machines who believe we’re different (due to a complexity beyond our understanding), but are ultimately just deterministically executing code like a spider? Are we genetically/chemically pre-determined to learn, think, feel and decay the way we do based on the I/O of our lives, and everything we’ve ever done would be repeated identically if we were rebooted and exposed to the exact same I/O (down to the planck unit).

Option 2 indicates more of an inherent “free will”… but even then, are the memories just a more complex form of input, but still inescapably deterministic.

Personally, I believe in determinism — that another universe which started in the EXACT same way (down to the most miniscule detail), exposed to the exact sane external forces (if any) would lead through the EXACT same events to the EXACT same end.

[int_19h]

Mechanical determinism is actually somewhat orthogonal to free will - a quantum process, for example, is inherently unpredictable, but I don't think that randomness of choices automatically implies free will.

[andrewflnr]

Your 1) and 2) both describe biobots, and neither description relates to memory.

[mock-possum]

Yeah I think unfortunately it’s just option 1.