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Old 06-20-2016, 07:48 AM   #5
din155
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: UK
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe View Post
As I recall, the author came down on the side of free will, which surprised me.....
...Rather a surprising conclusion, especially considering the now famous experiment in 1985 by Dr. Benjamin Libet he mentioned earlier in the book that revealed how EEG scans show that the brain appears to make decisions about three hundred milliseconds before they register in the consciousness. Combine that with experiments with split-brain patients who, when one side is asked why it performed a certain action that the researchers had requested of the other side of the brain, always comes up with an explanation that make it appear it was their choice based on factors that had no play in the decision, the conclusion seems inescapable that we are the masters of our fate only insofar as our minds weave a narrative that convinces us we are in control.
We may never get an answer, most probably we will simply accept some things as they are and move on. I think the author said it in one section.

Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe View Post
I was amazed in reading this book that, with one or two exceptions, every book and every movie the author mentioned, I've read or watched. That's so not the case normally when people in general ask me if I've read a certain book or seen a certain movie. Maybe my off-center tastes are part of what makes me so strange.
That's unsettling
I am going to keep a watch on your reading list
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