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News Briefs 13-09-2011

It would probably be wiser to go after the evolutionary mystery of the female first.

  • Scientists think they can prove that free will is an illusion. Philosophers are urging them to think again.
  • Rate of radioactive decay affected by the Sun?
  • NDEs explained by science.
  • Five unexpected objects that fell to Earth.
  • Bats eavesdrop to learn to hunt.
  • Fatherhood leads to a drop in testosterone.
  • Icy body Dione may have dilute layer of oxygen air.
  • Sniffer dogs detect early lung cancer.
  • Can earthquakes trigger volcanic eruptions? Another view here.
  • The world’s weirdest places to scuba dive.
  • Smoking is not normal behaviour for orang-utans.
  • What makes us curious?
  • Ricky Gervais suffers from this.

Quote of the Day:

The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is “What does a woman want?”

Sigmund Freud

  1. Neuroscientists Deny Free Will
    Neuroscience vs philosophy: Taking aim at free will – yet another example of the paradigm blindness of scientists who need a good dose of philosophy.

    Of course free will exists – their results do not deny it. An example of implementing their results long before their study was completed is this: about 10 years ago I had the epiphany that I needn’t stand idly by and watch as a glass that I tipped over spilled, or one that I knocked off the table fell to the floor and broke. Accidents like these happen to us all from time to time. Afterwards I would think to myself – that probably took 2 or 3 seconds to fall and break, why didn’t I reach out and catch it – like a boxer or martial artist with ultra fast reflexes. I knew that the neurons in my brain fired very rapidly so I should be able to stop the accident before it completed, but I also knew there was a delay as the unconscious mind communicated with the conscious mind – and that is where the stalling occurred. This was demonstrated in a high school physics class by a teacher where he held a dollar bill between our open thumb and index finger. He said we could keep it if we caught it when he let it go – none of us could because of the delay between seeing and acting. Only one student was ever successful he said – who happened to be a star athlete with phenomenal reflexes.

    So knowing all this, I decided to program my unconscious mind (using my free will mind you) to act instantly and perfectly with lightning reflexes. I repeated that mantra over and over during the following weeks and months even to the present and anytime an accident occurs or I think about it just to stay sharp. What soon happened is when I or somebody near me would accidentally knock an object off a desk, without even thinking my hand would shoot out and catch it to their surprise. I’ve averted dozens of minor mishaps thanks to my newfound automatic response.

    So yes – you could say free will was not involved because I did not wait for my conscious mind to register the accident and decide to act – the communication delay is too slow. But it was my free will that chose to program my unconscious mind to react independent of my conscious decision – or to look at it another way to delegate the responsibility to it for deciding and acting – and it has not let me down since. Free will reigns.

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