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Comment by ta8645 | Hacker News Reader

Isn't the same true for humans? Most of us stay in the same statistical search space for large chunks of our lives, all but sleepwalking through the daily drudgery.

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No, humans have autonomy.

In a big picture sense. Probably more correct to say that some humans have autonomy some of the time.

My go-to example is being able to steer the pedestrian in front of you by making audible footsteps to either side of their center.

The pedestrian in front of you has the choice to be steered or to ignore you--or more unexpected actions. Which ever they choose has nothing to do with the person behind them taking away their autonomy and everything to do with what they felt like doing with it at the time. Just because the wants of the person behind them and willingness & aweness and choice of the person in front align with those wants does not take away the forward person's self governance.

The point of that demonstration is that people do things without consciously thinking about them. You don’t have a choice, I am controlling your behavior in an extremely minor way.

But I do have a choice, simply because your ego wants to believe otherwise does not make it true. I find people who do that annoying and will refuse to change course or speed unless I am feeling ornery in which I will abruptly stop or slow down "controlling" their behavior to dodge. Only I don't see it as controlling their behavior because they could just as easily choose to run into me and I have no control over which option they chose.

What would a human without autonomy look like?

A human in a coma; at least in the current state of understanding for the condition of a human in a coma.

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