Since Ph1lom4n Likes It So Much ...

Hat tip to PZ over at Pharyngula, of course.

Free will...Revisited

Now that I've exercised my free will and had a few beers, I think I can respond to the comments. Thank you so much for all the great comments. I started to type this in the comments section of "Free will...?". Then I wondered whether anyone would have seen the comment being the post is three years old, plus it was getting long for a comment. So I did the old cut 'n' paste and here we are.

In response to Coralius, your comment about emergent behavior is a great possible explanation of free will, even though I know other possibilities exist. I realize now that there is a lot about the brain, the universe, and the nature of reality that we don't understand, not the least of which is free will. It's amazing looking back on my post after three years and seeing how I've changed. I can see better now the fact that certain things may currently be beyond our scope of understanding.

In response to Ranson, I believe adding a randomizing agent like a drug to a determined system like the brain would create random will. I don't think random will equates with free will. But then I'm not sure the brain is necessarily a determined system.

In response to Aradia, looking back at my post I realize I wasn't too clear about the point I was trying to make. I was trying to say that our will is either determined or random, neither of which would be free. But I must concede that the emergent behavior theory sounds promising for free will, plus the fact that I realize better now how little we currently know about the brain, the mind, and the nature of reality. By the way, I like the dendrite salad stuck in the salad spinner rather than the salad shooter. The salad shooter analogy creates images of a hole in my head with my brains flying out of it. Very disturbing. The salad spinner means neural activity contained and normal. Well, mostly normal.

So I guess the gist of it is that I'm left with more questions than answers. But that's okay. That's good for science. When questions end, so does science. Then you're left with dogma. Ooo...Scary stuff! Been there. Done that. Bought the t-shirt, literally. So now I'm gonna toss back a few free will lagers and bask in the warm glow of my free will.