CGSC 2002 Lecture 20: Philosophy 2
1 Apr 2018
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It"s ok if my brain made me do it": People"s intuitions about free will and neuroscientific prediction. Recent brain scanning studies have shown that specific patterns of brain activity can be used to predict simple decisions several seconds before people are consciously aware of those decisions. Imagine that in the future brain scanning technology becomes much more advanced. Neuroscientists can use brain scanners to detect all the activity in a person"s brain and use that information to predict with 100% accuracy every single decision a person will make before the person is consciously aware of their decision. The neuroscientists cannot, however, do anything to change brain activity and hence they cannot directly influence thoughts and actions. Suppose that in the future a woman named jill agrees, as part of a neuroscience experiment, to wear this brain scanner for a month (it is a lightweight cap).
