The human brain
A recent experiment conducted by John Dylan Haynes, professor at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin raises troubling questions on human’s dearest possession: his free will.
The results of the experiment showed that, 10 seconds before consciously making a decision, the human brain had already taken it. This would indicate that people don’t have a real option in front of them, but are following a pattern easy to read by a machine.
The experiment is similar to a previous one known as ”mind reading”, also conducted by Haynes. His conclusion back then was that you could programme a computer to read a certain pattern that the brain follows in order to identify a thought. However, this only applies to simple thoughts and it needs full focus of the subject. If our mind functioning as a machine, once we figure out the laws that govern it, can we foresee its actions?
Not too long from that experiment, a new breakthrough takes the lead in neuroscience. Can or cannot a person make a decision based entirely on his or her will? And if not, what about the moral implications of this inconvenient experiment?
If a man does not act voluntarily he cannot be kept responsible for his wrong doing. What consequences would this have on the society altogether? Scientists have their reserves, but the matter is already being discussed with great enthusiasm, since the media followed the story closely and brought it to the public as a controversial subject.
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http://www.prlog.org/
