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Stageplays.com

Jan 3, 2007

ny times on free will

"The order of brain activities seemed to be perception
of motion, and then decision, rather than the other
way around.

In short, the conscious brain was only playing
catch-up to what the unconscious brain was already
doing. The decision to act was an illusion, the monkey
making up a story about what the tiger had already
done."

and

"Dr. Wegner of Harvard said: "We worry that explaining
evil condones it. We have to maintain our outrage at
Hitler. But wouldn't it be nice to have a theory of
evil in advance that could keep him from coming to
power?"

He added, "A system a bit more focused on helping
people change rather than paying them back for what
they've done might be a good thing.""

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/science/02free.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087%0A&em&en=30114785d6264b5f&ex=1167973200

4 comments:

Malachy Walsh said...

I'm so glad to know I'm not responsible for anything I do. It's just a story I make up along the way.

Now, if only I could explain that to everyone at the party when I blacked out that one time...

Adam Szymkowicz said...

you didn't read the article, did you?

Malachy Walsh said...

No.

I kept telling my body to click on the link but my body didn't click on link.

Anonymous said...

"Free Will: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t" -- I thought God's greatest gift to man is FREE WILL, or so I thought!