> "A Monkey" monkey.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns9A87BE8FB962Csimian@194.177.96.78...

>> There's a new paper in Nature that shows our brains make decisions before
>> we're aware of it. Basically it's another (big) nail in the coffin for
>> the traditional idea of free will.
>>
>> Wired: 'All of the data of cognitive neuroscience are pushing us to
>> replace the idea of mind-body duality, which is so intuitive, with the
>> idea that mental processes are brain processes. But these results on the
>> neural processes underlying free decisions rub our noses in it!'
>>
>> The abstract of the paper is this:
>>
>> 'There has been a long controversy as to whether subjectively 'free'
>> decisions are determined by brain activity ahead of time. We found that
>> the outcome of a decision can be encoded in brain activity of prefrontal
>> and parietal cortex up to 10 seconds before it enters awareness. This
>> delay presumably reflects the operation of a network of high-level
>> control areas that begin to prepare an upcoming decision long before it
>> enters awareness.'
>>
>> http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nn.2112.html;jsessi
>> onid=C60DA9EFE0811E4683F0802827D49564
>>
>> The Wired interview is here
>> http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/is-free-will-an.html
>>

>
>
> The biggest nail of all is that of 'determinism'
> Leaving the brain right out of it...the Determinism theory goes something
> like......from the instant of the big bang - every atom, every
> particle...electron, neutron...whatever....set out on a pre-determined
> path.....every interaction entirely predictable based on every single
> variable at play in the opening instant. (like balls on a snooker
> table....if you were clever enough you could map the exact path of every
> single ball...and all their interactions with all the other balls following
> the break....you would of course need to be VERY clever (God?).
>
> The point being that there is no randomness...no free will at all....only
> the human perception of such.
>
> Everything that has ever happened...is happening right now...and will happen
> in the future...was mappable/predictable right from the start.
> Everything that has ever happened could have only happened in that way and
> at that time....and nothing could have prevented it!
>
> Kinda disconcerting....in a reassuringly predictable way....