Neuroscience and Free Will BBC video [mirror]

Mirror:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6S9Oi...

In this clip, Marcus Du Sautoy (Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and the Simonyi Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science) participates in an experiment conducted by John-Dylan Haynes (Professor at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin) that attempts to find the neurological basis for decision making.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Free Will
• Determinism
• Consciousness
• Subconscious
• Neuroscience
• Causality
• Neurophilosophy
• Materialism
• Dualism
• Neuroethics

[xknowledgeisfreex]

What would happen if he were told his own decision by the experimenter 6 seconds in advance of him becoming aware of it?

[scienceandnonduality]

@xknowledgeisfreex: AWESOME QUESTION!!!!!!

[xknowledgeisfreex]

@scienceandnonduality

lol :)

[scienceandnonduality]

@xknowledgeisfreex I can see a feedback loop an dthe FMRI exploding...

Also, on the line... what about if you put the person reading the results of the the FMRI in another FMRI and see if his analisys of what the machine will read appears 6 seconds early???

:-)

[kasuskasus]

Duality takes another beating! :P

[sweenz25]

Free will assumes a person, but the person is just an appearance within the thinking and thinking just happens. Stuff just happens and no one is in control. Harsh! yes, but as clear as day. Just look at experience for validation.

[crisisofconsciousnes]

@JBricklin nice, thanks for that info

[crisisofconsciousnes]

@smudge6699 yes, this claiming that consciousness is a product of the mind is a bad route for humans, we really need to evolve into the spiritual beings that we truly are. Science fails again and believes in its arrogance that everything can be observed with our 5 senses. Give a man a spiritual realisation, a feeling of waking up out of concepts and mental constructs and he will find his true identity, all is one

[crisisofconsciousnes]

consciousness is not brain activity, this mis-identification is the root cause for 60+ million deaths during wars and countless other things caused by humans believing that they are the brain, the thoughts, the emotions. Our real identity is the consciousness and it is not brain activity, it is beyond the mind. Enlightenment is the realisation of this

[crisisofconsciousnes]

the consciousness mind is not a product of the mind, it is beyond the mind and can only be understood when the mind is silent

[crisisofconsciousnes]

cause and effect are in the mind only, in reality everything is one and now

[udoloh]

@xknowledgeisfreex I don't think they analyze the data in real time. I might be wrong though. If it does run in real time, they should definitely try it.

[wordcolor]

@xknowledgeisfreex - good question! I'm sure then he's press the other button just out of curosity

[BesACB]

The concept of free will implies the concept of an agent. The concept of a separate agent rests on the identification with the body co-existing with the inner sense of absolute unrestrainedness of the self.

[RedLetterChristian]

the examiner saying that what you do is predetermined is just wrong, when he clearly said before that your unconscious mind is part of the decision making process and that it is in touch with your beliefs, and hopes ect. the fact that you are being asked to make a decision and that they can then follow the act of making that decision is amazing but this in no way leads to a none dualist idea of the brain, just b/c you become aware of the decision after process. the jump in logic is too great.

[MrWildbill20056]

1)This work shows latency between presentation of question and the brain activity? As such, then what about decisions made within that window of 'reactivity?'

2) A quick review also shows that the predicitions made are accurate above the 'probability due to chance' threshold, but not perfectly. Consequently is this not more accurately interpreted as simply one part of the decision making process?

3) Consquently the brain 'computer' and consciousness may work together to produce results.