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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."

9 of 733 comments (clear)

  1. 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
  2. +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.

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

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

  4. 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
  5. Re:Predict the prediction. by Simon+Simian · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shingle Donkeys

  6. 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.
  7. 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
  8. 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.
  9. 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