Not being very original here, I just took the idea from dilbert blog (sorry, I already told you that I derive my philosophy from cartoons...)

So, what's free will, how do you exercise it when everything in this Universe seems to be either determined or random, therefore our thoughts could only be some deterministic stuff peppered with some random stuff, is there room for so called "free will"?

i think free will is one of those things; either a person believes or a person doesn't.

it's a decision-making process. it's accountability. that's it. i think a lot of people overcomplicate this issue (or perhaps i over simplify).

i can't even fathom how people wonder whether they have it or not.

i don't think free will means having unlimited free will (we're trapped in bodies); i think it means working with what we have to work with. we're presented with many outcomes (or choices) and we make them.

Well... the point is that you make those "choices" in the same way a computer decide what to do next, it's according to the "program" and the law of physics, so what exactly is "free" in this "choice"?

Not exactly like a computer, according to the program, according to logic. No.

Free will is what gives me the opportunity to do something that seems totally illogical to the rest of the world and which would turn out disastrous to "the program", had it run on a computer.

That's not what it means, even when you do something that appears to be illogical you still don't make "a choice". What's "choice" and what's "free" about it when you are compelled to take it?

By "compelled" I mean that your thoughts are the result of chemical and electrical messages in your brain, you can't have independent thoughts from your brain, they have a chemical basis -- just as a light bulb has to turn on (it doesn't have a "choice") when you flip on the switch the same thing happens in your brain, all your thoughts are a combination of deterministic stuff sprinkled with random stuff: like many switches that turn on and off following some rules + some switches that turn on and off randomly. The fact that I or anyone else, including possible you don't understand your decision doesn't make the "decision" less deterministic (caused by something -- your decisions, thoughts and an end of causality chains)

So, the questions is: what is free about deterministic+random stuff? If it's not only deterministic+random stuff, what else is there that's supposed to be free? What does "free" mean?

yeah, but remember what one person's comment was about "the soul" on the dilbert blog?

please say you do
i don't have time to wade through all of those comments again right now.

i believe there's more to us than synapses and random switches.
those are part of us, right now, at the moment.
what do you think might be left when our physical body is gone? do you believe that we have consciousness after death?

just curious...not trying to pick apart your beliefs.

i don't feel as though i don't understand what i think or do. i know why, though i may be less than impressed at times with myself, but that's another whole story.
*free* to me means not being manipulated by other entities and in turn, not manipulating entities.
i don't know...maybe i'm too esoteric and not scientific enough. *shrugs*

Unfortunatelly I don't believe in "life after life".. so no brain -- no consciousness.

Well.. Ravenranter isn't esotheric ENOUGH

But then, my own experiences about consciousness are those that are not believed by many, *laughs* Adrian being one of them

I agree with Ravenranter's ideas of "free". The only person to do the thinking is me. If we are not free in thinking, we are simply, according to what I make of Adrian's terms: dead.

Oh dear.. we're all zombies. Shit..

oooo,ooo, mr. kotter! (never mind)

that gentleman, ryan, about a third of the way down in the comments (dilbert), has quite the way of putting it.
he describes the brain as "interface" between the body and the soul.
i liked that.

My reply, kind of contrived, but you get an idea about my position:
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Scott, we are on the same wavelength, my only guess is that most of the opposition to these ideas come from different interpretations of the words and of course, lack of understanding.

Lack of "free will" would mean for most of the people that some impulse or some complex impulses would lead to a deterministic event, in your example neglecting the robot will lead to some actions that are programmed into its "brain". While that remains true for humans, it gets more complicated because:
1. the program changes, it doesn't remain the same. New ideas and concepts are assimilated on a daily basis and acted upon. I think this dynamic aspect is pretty important, your robot would be able to do only a limited number of things and behave pretty unsurprising, humans although deterministic+random as anything in Universe can be influenced by an unlimited number of ideas hence kinda "free" from original program.
2. deterministic aspect is not as simple as "I'm hungry, therefore I'm going to eat the next guy I see" the response depends on "hardware" (brain structure), but also on the dynamic "program": ideas, principles, morality that ARE part of self, so even if my response is deterministic+random bits it is also a reflection of myself and my ideas. Thus a criminal even if he invokes "lack of free will" should be just as well punished/re-educated exactly because his lack of "free will" led him to commit a crime, other people also lacking "free will" would probably not have committed the crime (because they have different brains, temperaments, ideas, principles -- even if the were in the same situation: e.g. being poor would not lead each and every person to kill somebody for their money)

I also guess that many people consider free will as something that's at the level of ideas not at the level of basic impulses, in a sense that ideas can trample on basic impulses: for example I might "choose" (decision taken on basis on macro ideas not on micro basic impulses) not to kill and eat people even if I'm really hungry.