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Brain Study Calls Free Will Into Question

Posted by kdawson on from the choose-wisely-young-jedi dept.

siddster notes an account up at Wired of research indicating that brain scanners can see your decisions before you make them. "In a study published Sunday in Nature Neuroscience, researchers using brain scanners could predict people's decisions seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them... Caveats remain, holding open the door for free will... The experiment may not reflect the mental dynamics of other, more complicated decisions... Also, the predictions were not completely accurate. Maybe free will enters at the last moment, allowing a person to override an unpalatable subconscious decision."

13 of 733 comments (clear)

  1. I have free will by Lucas123 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've chosen not to comment on this story. There's my free will. Wait, I mean, I'll comment but I'm not leaving an opinion, except for the one that states that I have free will. Hold on. OK. I'm not leaving an opinion as much as statement. Oh, forget it. You're right. I have no free will.

    1. Re:I have free will by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Funny

      Forget it - that line of reasoning didn't work for me in front of the judge after the whole girl scout thing, either.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  2. Will or Wii? by blantonl · · Score: 5, Funny

    For a second or two there... I thought for sure the study called my Wii into question.

    My "will" is rock solid... my "Wii" challenges me evey day.

    --
    Lindsay Blanton
    RadioReference.com
  3. Re:7 seconds by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you had read your first quote more carefully the second one would have made more sense. What it's saying is the scanner picked up on unconscious decisions people made. In this case the decision was trivial with no (known) consequences either way so the subjects likely didn't hesitate and just picked one consciously. What this is saying is that they had actually subconsciously decided which one they were going to pick seconds in advance and the scanner was able to see that.

  4. But what if you choose not to decide? by sticks_us · · Score: 3, Funny

    You can choose from phantom fears
    And kindness that can kill
    I will choose a path thats clear
    I will choose free will!

    --oblig.

    --
    "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it." -- Donald Knuth
  5. +5 Predetermined by Shaitan+Apistos · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you don't mod me according to my post's title I'll understand, you didn't have a choice.

  6. Re:Predict the prediction. by Simon+Simian · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was going to call you, but then I didn't.

  7. Re:Predict the prediction. by infonography · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was going to call you, but then I didn't. I knew you were going to say that.
    --
    Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
  8. Re:Predict the prediction. by Simon+Simian · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shingle Donkeys

  9. Criminal Court :) by davidwr · · Score: 5, Funny

    High Priced Trial Lawyer: Your honor, my client pleads not guilty by reason of no free will.

    Judge: I sentence him to life in prison.

    High Priced Trial Lawyer: But...

    Judge: Don't look at me, I don't have free will either.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  10. Re:Um, not so much of a newsflash by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    During the early 1600s there was an argument amongst various protestant faiths about whether there was free will or not, particularly in England. Whether free will exists, or not - why would that fact differ in England as compared to the rest of the world?

    Sincerely,
    Mr. Pedantic

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  11. Re:Predict the prediction. by infonography · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shingle Donkeys ok, thats as far as I am going to go with you.
    --
    Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
  12. Re:Predict the prediction. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    when closing the car door you see your keys in the ignition, your brain says STOP but your hand continues to close the door. ignisecond, n:
    The overlapping moment of time when the hand is locking the car door even as the brain is saying, "my keys are in there!"
    -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"