Ehh... free will?

[RozKek]

http://www.iflscience.com/brain/brain-me...dentified/

Can someone make sense of this? I don't understand how this is possible. If this is possible wouldn't it imply that we can "steer" the neurons in our brain? If not then what makes it free in this case?

[brewer]

What is the electrochemical neural transmit delay time from initiation in the PFC, transmit to the MSP, transmit to other brain areas (basal ganglia), transmit to the appropriate muscles and then muscle contraction. Could this account for the "slight" delay and not have any impact on free will?

Reading the embedded abstract, sounds like free will initiated in the brain to me.

[RozKek]

What is the electrochemical neural transmit delay time from initiation in the PFC, transmit to the MSP, transmit to other brain areas (basal ganglia), transmit to the appropriate muscles and then muscle contraction. Could this account for the "slight" delay and not have any impact on free will?

Reading the embedded abstract, sounds like free will initiated in the brain to me.

That's not the important part. It still doesn't make sense with physics.

[brewer]

Explain.

[Alex K]

Another example for shitty science journalism - or at least for shitty headline writing. OF course they don't identify the "mechanism behind free" will or any such nonsense. They observed that some brain region gets activated before decisions to change focus. I'm no neurologist, so I can't tell how new or interesting this finding is, but the title claim is clearly overhyped.

[RozKek]

Explain.

Every single decision, movement, thought and such of yours are causes by the interaction of neurons. Those neurons are made of particles and every particle is causal. Therefore how the neurons move or how they interact in the future are decided by causality not you. 

So let's say your neurons interact in a way so you raise your arm. The reason your neurons interacted in that way to raise your arm was because of the surrounding particles (and further and further back) causing them to do so, they didn't interact that way because you decided to. Well.. it was your decision but why you decided to decide that wasn't your decision.

[Alex K]

Explain.

Every single decision, movement, thought and such of yours are causes by the interaction of neurons. Those neurons are made of particles and every particle is causal. Therefore how the neurons move or how they interact in the future are decided by causality not you. 

So let's say your neurons interact in a way so you raise your arm. The reason your neurons interacted in that way to raise your arm was because of the surrounding particles (and further and further back) causing them to do so, they didn't interact that way because you decided to. Well.. it was your decision but why you decided to decide that wasn't your decision.

I wouldn't go so far to say that every particle is causal. Quantum randomness is a thing. It's not violating causality in the sense of changing the past, but not everything on the particle level follows as effect and cause.

[RozKek]

---

Every single decision, movement, thought and such of yours are causes by the interaction of neurons. Those neurons are made of particles and every particle is causal. Therefore how the neurons move or how they interact in the future are decided by causality not you. 

So let's say your neurons interact in a way so you raise your arm. The reason your neurons interacted in that way to raise your arm was because of the surrounding particles (and further and further back) causing them to do so, they didn't interact that way because you decided to. Well.. it was your decision but why you decided to decide that wasn't your decision.

---

I wouldn't go so far to say that every particle is causal. Quantum randomness is a thing. It's not violating causality in the sense of changing the past, but not everything on the particle level follows as effect and cause.

I was going to get into that if he asked. In that case our decisions are either random or causal. As far as I know in no case can we freely steer the neurons to do what we want to do. And if we can steer the neurons we can always ask why did I steer them in way A instead of way B? 

However, I personally like the idea of an indeterministic universe more because it's unique and instead of thinking every single thing is bound to happen i.e it is determined I can think that I'm like a biomechanical robot finding my way through a completely unique universe :V

[Alex K]

I wouldn't go so far to say that every particle is causal. Quantum randomness is a thing. It's not violating causality in the sense of changing the past, but not everything on the particle level follows as effect and cause.

I was going to get into that if he asked. In that case our decisions are either random or causal. As far as I know in no case can we freely steer the neurons to do what we want to do. And if we can steer the neurons we can always ask why did I steer them in way A instead of way B? 

I agree completely.

[bennyboy]

Every single decision, movement, thought and such of yours are causes by the interaction of neurons. Those neurons are made of particles and every particle is causal. Therefore how the neurons move or how they interact in the future are decided by causality not you. 

So let's say your neurons interact in a way so you raise your arm. The reason your neurons interacted in that way to raise your arm was because of the surrounding particles (and further and further back) causing them to do so, they didn't interact that way because you decided to. Well.. it was your decision but why you decided to decide that wasn't your decision.

I wouldn't go so far to say that every particle is causal. Quantum randomness is a thing. It's not violating causality in the sense of changing the past, but not everything on the particle level follows as effect and cause.

This is true.  However, free will and determinism are not really polar opposites.  There's nothing about randomness which implies free will, either.