thread: Wikileaks
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  #193  
12-13-2010, 12:41 PM
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Bullet Magnet
Bayesian Empirimancer
 
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The more we learn about the brain, the less free will seems to be applicable. At least not in the sense we all think of. My personal suspicion is that there is free will but we are completely wrong about what that entails.

I've lost the reference now, it was probably a book in a shop I hadn't bought, but it was about fellow with a vested ideological interest in scientifically proving free will, so he delved deep into neurology. Naturally, he was horrified to discover that on the nervous level, the brain is gearing up and well into performing an action quite a bit of time in advance of the owner experiencing the actual decision to perform that action in the first place.

Our desire to act appears to lag behind the act itself.
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