[BNM] [OT] 13 things that don't make sense

[Alex Farran]

On Thu, 29 Jun 2006 17:16:00 +0100, "Paul Silver" <paul at tenpastmidnight.com> said:

> Erm... are these serious?

Is that a rhetorical question?

> How about... as our pre-motor cortex fires before we've made a conscious
> decision to move our hands/body, and causes the motor cortex to fire and
> activate the motion, does this mean our free will and consciousness is
> actually the by product of a process we are not aware of and effectively
> the 'I' I think of myself as is actually an illusion as it doesn't
> affect anything as all decisions have actually been made by the deeper
> process?

Sounds like pretty compelling evidence to me.  The next question is
why have consciousness at all?  If consciousness is truly an illusion
then it has to account for itself on the evolutionary balance sheet.
There's a hypothesis that says that a more highly evolved organism
that can plan ahead needs to have the impression of a self to motivate
it to act in its interest.

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    __o       Alex Farran  www.alexfarran.com  01273 474065
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