Rationality: From AI to Zombies

by Eliezer Yudkowsky

If the laws of physics did not control us, how could we possibly control ourselves? How could thoughts judge other thoughts, how could emotions conflict with each other, how could one course of action appear best, how could we pass from uncertainty to certainty about our own plans, in the midst of utter chaos? If we were not in reality, where could we be? The future is determined by physics. What kind of physics? The kind of physics that includes the actions of human beings. People’s choices are determined by physics. What kind of physics? The kind of physics that includes weighing decisions, considering possible outcomes, judging them, being tempted, following morals, rationalizing transgressions, trying to do better . . . There is no point where a quark swoops in from Pluto and overrides all this. The thoughts of your decision process are all real, they are all something. But a thought is too big and complicated to be an atom. So thoughts are made of smaller things, and our name for the stuff that stuff is made of is “physics.” Physics underlies our decisions and includes our decisions. It does not explain them away.