RE: Do you believe in free will?
March 14, 2012 at 11:38 am
(This post was last modified: March 14, 2012 at 11:40 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(March 14, 2012 at 10:15 am)genkaus Wrote: As for the neurological complexity part, I think we've had this discussion somewhere. I cannot point to a specific level or find a line of demarcation. Here's a list according to my current understanding.
Humans - Yes.
Other great apes - Yes.
Dolphins - Yes.
Octopuses -Yes.
Elephants - Yes.
Dogs - Maybe yes.
Cats - Maybe yes.
Birds - Dunno.
Fish - Dunno.
Bears - Dunno.
Rats - Maybe No.
Ants - No.
Snakes - No.
and so on. As you may notice, most of the animals would come under "dunno".
You can't point to specifics, nor can you demonstrate it's existence except by reference to brain size, effect, or complexity(which for some reason or another are sometimes not good enough in some cases, but I would give it to you that considering all of these things together definitely has merit) and yet somehow you are confident in the statement that this thing exists. That doesn't worry you in the least? No worries, lets take a look at the list. Keeping it pretty close to our comfort zone aren't we? Very little on that list that is not very closely related to us has a definite yes. Troubling, bias. Some of these "dunnos" are pretty damned smart... It seems that this list is very much a list of things with big brains, big, deterministic, electrochemical machines....called brains.
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