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Free Will - A new angle on an old debate
June 11, 2013 at 3:30 pm
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
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RE: Free Will - A new angle on an old debate
June 11, 2013 at 3:41 pm
It doesn't say there is free will, it just says deterministic will is determined in a more complicated way then previously assumed.
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RE: Free Will - A new angle on an old debate
June 11, 2013 at 7:22 pm
(This post was last modified: June 11, 2013 at 7:28 pm by ManMachine.)
(June 11, 2013 at 3:41 pm)Chuck Wrote: It doesn't say there is free will, it just says deterministic will is determined in a more complicated way then previously assumed.
I think - and I admit I've not read the book yet but I have read a more detailed article in this months New Scientist - that he's suggesting there is conscious influence over the synaptic reweighting in memory retrieval.
The idea seems to be that there is a conscious setting up of the memory filters that will ultimately lead to (modified) action. It's a variant of CAS Theory - RP leads to conscious action that influences RP - some kind of feedback interference, and somewhere in this interference is where 'Free Will' exists.
The problem is that all this does is beg the question what potential drives the conscious decision to set those filters, which takes us back to square one. There's not enough in the articles to see if he's answered that.
I'm not convinced, I just thought it was interesting.
MM
(June 11, 2013 at 5:27 pm)apophenia Wrote:
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"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
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