RE: Free Will - Yes/No?
May 8, 2016 at 12:20 pm
(This post was last modified: May 8, 2016 at 12:24 pm by IATIA.)
(May 8, 2016 at 11:20 am)Excited Penguin Wrote:(May 8, 2016 at 10:42 am)IATIA Wrote: For sake of argument, we will assume causality is real. If quantum randomness is truly random then 'this' neuron might fire before 'that' neuron which would be unpredictable. Even though there is "cause and effect", the initiation is non-deterministic.
How does randomness exclude determinism, exactly? What does it matter that you can't predict the effect, there's still going to be an effect and you're going to be bound by it.
We cannot predict exactly which neuron and at what time a specific neuron will fire. There will, obviously, be a statistical probability that allows us to function, but at the neuron level, for a specific neuron, there will be a certain amount of indeterminate information, only probabilities.
Here is a little information on the actual workings of a neuron.
Radiation is a perfect example. The half life of uranium is predictable, but exactly which atom will decay is unpredictable. Effectively, we can have a predictable outcome from an unpredictable source.
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-- Homer Simpson
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Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
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-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
