by I M Probulos
Freddie Lee Hall was convicted of murdering a pregnant woman and a deputy sheriff in Florida 35 years ago. He was convicted and sentenced long before the Supreme Court's ruling on mental retardation. Upon resentencing in 1993, he was found to be intellectually disabled, with an IQ around 70, but his death sentence was upheld.
Legal Challenges
We already judge people on a free will curve, you might call it. We have defense for insanity, impairment, and retardation.
Not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI)
Guilty but insane/mentally ill is allowed in some jurisdictions.
Impairment defense
He does not understand the charges against him.
Retardation defense.
In criminal trials, the insanity defense is where the defendant claims they are not responsible for their actions due to mental health problems (psychiatric illness or mental handicap). The exemption of the insane from full criminal punishment dates back to at least the Code of Hammurabi (Babylonian law code-1772 BC).
There are different definitions of legal insanity, such as the M'Naghten Rules, the Durham Rule, the American Legal Institute definition. Mitigating factors, including things not eligible for the insanity defense like intoxication (or, more frequently, diminished capacity), may lead to reduced charges or reduced sentences. Diminished responsibility or diminished capacity can be employed as a mitigating factor or partial legal defense to crimes. In Ford v. Wainwright 477 U.S. 399 (1986), the US Supreme Court upheld the common law rule that the insane cannot be executed.
Quantum Physics
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal explains that you don't know where the electron is until you observe it. Some interpretations of quantum mechanics say the atom is in more locations than one until we observe/measure it.
Heisenberg says there is uncertainty. Einstein said god does not play dice with the universe. The wild card of events is the uncertainty of quantum physics. Is life therefore, unpredictable? To arrive at this conclusion you have to extrapolate from a quantum, atomic state to the material world of neurons, neurostransmitters, biological structures in the brain and the billions of memories stored in the brain. I think it’s a stretch. If our thinking was unpredictable then we would simply be making errors in every aspect of our thinking as neurons fired randomly for no reason at all.
Actually, neuronal firing is not a certain event and most fire about 30% of the time. So the next time you cannot remember that movie star’s name, that’s because your neurons are poorly designed, and don’t always fire on cue.
If quantum fluctuations were in effect in the neural processes of the mind, then we would have less than free will, it’s no will at all. A perfectly sane, rational good person could have an alternate state, totally beyond their recognition or control and stab their neighbor and blame it on spooky quantum behavior. This serves no purpose to further the debate for either side. However, it is very popular and there are numerous proponents in the academic world.
Quantum Mind
The quantum mind or quantum consciousness hypothesis proposes that classical mechanics cannot explain consciousness, while quantum mechanical phenomena, such as quantum entanglement and superposition, may play an important part in the brain's function, and could form the basis of an explanation of consciousness. There are experts in both camps and they all have Ph.Ds.
CON: Philosopher David Chalmers has argued against quantum consciousness.
CON: Victor Stenger, a physicist, characterized quantum consciousness as a "myth" having "no scientific basis" that "should take its place along with gods, unicorns and dragons."
CON: Physicist Max Tegmark argues against the quantum mind proposition because quantum states in the brain would decohere before they reached a spatial or temporal scale at which they could be useful for neural processing. Based on his calculations, Tegmark concluded that quantum systems in the brain decohere quickly and cannot control brain function.
PRO: Hiroomi Umezawa, a physicist, is known for his fundamental contributions to quantum field theory and for his work on quantum phenomena in relation to the mind.
PRO: Henry Stapp proposes quantum waves are reduced only when they interact with consciousness.
PRO: Dr. Robert Russell, PhD, argues for merging free will metaphysics based on quantum mechanics.
PRO: Eugene Wigner assumes that the wave function collapses due to its interaction with consciousness.
For the most part, if someone is highly educated and has faith, the quantum mind option is their best scientific explanation for believing in free will.
[Click here] for a YouTube Video Why Quantum Physics Ends the Free Will Debate by Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist. In this video he explains that the uncertainty of the position of an atom correlates to uncertainty in our action. So one could posit that the uncertainty could be a component on whether my hypothetical neuron fired or not–therefore the world is not deterministic–there is always that uncertainty. In other words, if every atom of our universe was duplicated, based on the uncertainty principal, there could be different outcomes–God is rolling dice. Hmm, it sounds reasonable based on quantum mechanics. But how does it help?
My main issue with this theory is that there so many known causal events we can work on such as child abuse, addictive behaviors, mind control, and positive reinforcements schedules that invoking a spooky behavior component does not lead to any solutions. If I add that quantum fluctuation wildcard to Eric, our robber above, then, we become beholden to the god of probability–it was a quantum fluctuation that made him rob the store–and that is far worse than not having free will. Now, it could be argued, that anyone, at any time, could pick up an ice pick and stab you in the eye–due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principal in the neuronal firings in their brain.
At the heart of this issue are two ways to look at free will. Is there certainty in the universe? One, the uncertainty principle suggests that the universe would not play out exactly the same way every time. But two, is a choice under our conscious and therefore willful control? To this question, even if there is a quantum element in a decision, the answer should be no. Most of our decision-making is on an unconscious level and this becomes even more so if there is always uncertainty.
String Theory is particle physics is replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings which occupy as many as eleven dimensions. While some consider this to be woo woo science and taut it as an example of science as religion, I think it is gaining in credibility. It is a candidate for the Theory of Everything, a self-contained mathematical model that describes all fundamental forces and forms of matter. (not to be confused with my Statistical Theory of Everything).
Recently, the five different string theories have been combined into one called M theory. There is disagreement between physicists concerning the validity of string theory with Stephen Hawking, Edward Witten, and Juan Maldaena on the Pro side, and Richard Feynman, Roger Penrose, and Sheldon Lee Glashow on the Con. When I first saw a documentary on the string theory and multiple dimensions, my first inclination was well, that could explain ghosts and spirits–they live in the other dimensions of string theory. Due to the small size of a string (approximately a Planck length or 1.616199(97)×10−35 metres) which is just another way as saying, really, really small, and our inability to perceive or even understand what a fifth, sixth or eleventh dimension would be–this may ultimately prove to be an untestable hypothesis.
Free will could exist in the fifth dimension of string theory–or any of the eleven dimensions. My issue would be could we ever prove this and does allowing this help prevent future negative outcomes? I think that it’s just a very (pseudo) scientific explanation to maintain guilt, blame, sin, and ultimately heaven and hell. Other than that, I do not see how believing it can help when compared to a mountain of neurological, psychological, and environmental influences to our behavior–that can be changed.
Oddly enough, I have pink, invisible unicorns, ESP, telekinesis
and tons of woo woo in my alternative universe, The Other God’s Earth, so even my rationale brain can imagine a parallel, other-dimensional world. I just keep it separate from this world. And, of course, TOGE is fiction.
Or is it?
Research
I feel like I have free will; I am the captain of my destiny.
Research shows that self-improvement seminars and self-help books don't help (on average). Walking on coals is not going to help you study medical terminology for hours, get along with your co-workers, or edit your book for eight hours on a Saturday. It's the sizzle (pun intended) instead of the steak. For example, people can confuse the adrenalin rush of a roller coaster with feelings of passion (In other words, take you date to the amusement park.)
Data does not seem to indicate that one religion is any better than any other. Red states, which are typically more religious, do not have less crime, less homicides, robberies, or unwed mothers than blue states. Muslim countries often have less crime than Christian countries. [Click here if you want to know why]
Social Psychology Studies
There are hundreds of social psychology experiments that reaffirm the hypothesis that we often do not know our own mind, are influenced by seemingly insignificant details, or we’re don’t know how we will behave in a given situation. Our senses are faulty, our memory is faulty, and our reasoning is biased. Here is but a small sample.
We believe that why others choose religion, for example, is different from why we choose our religion.
Stanley Milgram experiment on the power of authority (inflicting shocks).
Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) Phillip Zimbardo (prisoner experiment).
Eliminating consumer choices can greatly reduce anxiety for shoppers.
Invisible gorilla study. Over 50% of the subjects missed seeing a gorilla walk across the screen and thump its chest.
Broken Window Theory: cracking down on smaller, petty crimes, and cleaning up a city creates some semblance of order, and discourages larger crimes.
Substitution effect: if you switch the order of how you ask the questions you will get different answers.
Halo effect: we inherently like or dislike certain people without knowing why. We often have answers to questions we don't fully understand.
Focusing illusion: A rise in income has only a small and transient effect on happiness and well-being, but people consistently overestimate this effect.
Anchoring Effect: We will place a disproportionate influence of the first piece of information we receive.
Priming effect: responses can be manipulated by the deliberate introduction of specific words or other stimuli to increase the probability of a given response. Most of this is accomplished without the subject being aware of the priming effect.
Representativeness: If someone or something is neat and clean we are more likely to attribute other qualities to it (smart, well-functioning).
13. Hindsight bias: many things look obvious and clear only after the fact.
14. Herd mentality is a phenomenon where something becomes a meme or extremely popular but it does not appear to meet the hype: (50 shades of gray, Miley Cyrus, Christianity and Islam, vitamins). The fear of regret of missing out on a good investment is often a driving force behind herd instinct.
15. Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant, a form of apophenia.
16. Apophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. In statistics, it is an example of a type 1 error–the identification of false patterns in data. In test situations it would be considered a false positive. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon, and hearing hidden messages on records when played in reverse.
17. A Black Swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: it is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random and more predictable, than it actually was. See The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb [Amazon Link]
18. Confirmation bias: We read or accept only information that confirms to our beliefs and reject any conflicting data. We see only what we want to see.
Decision-Making Study
Recent research has shown that we often act or decide before there is activity in our prefrontal cortex, where complex cognitive behavior, decision making, and impulse control is believed to function. Before we logically and rationally evaluate our options, a more visceral region of the brain, the limbic system, is active. We often act first and then afterward justify our action with logic.
Many feel that the study below, which has been duplicated, is a profound indictment of our conscious free will. While a lot has been inferred by this study, one can argue that it is a relatively simple task. It does confirm the System 1/System 2 dynamic and how we react before we are consciously aware of our decision.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, using fMRI, reveal that our decisions are made seconds before we become aware of them. In the study, participants could freely decide if they wanted to press a button with their right or left hand. The only condition was that they had to remember when they made the decision to either use their right hand or left hand.
Using fMRI, researchers would scan the brains of the participants while all of this was going on in order to find out if they could in fact predict which hand the participants would use before they were consciously aware of the decision. By monitoring the micro patterns of activity in the frontopolar cortex, the researchers could predict which hand the participant would choose 7 seconds before the participant was aware of the decision.
“Your decisions are strongly prepared by brain activity. By the time consciousness kicks in, most of the work has already been done,” said study co-author John-Dylan Haynes, a Max Planck Institute neuroscientist.
“I know from the hypnosis research that the unconscious pretty much controls everything and that consciousness is extremely limited.”
Chun Siong Soon, Marcel Brass, Hans-Jochen Heinze & John-Dylan Haynes, “Unconscious Determinants of Free Decisions in the Human Brain.” Nature Neuroscience, April 13th, 2008.
Neurobiology
We have about 86 billion neurons, not the 100 billion as originally thought [Brazil researcher Dr Suzana Herculano-Houzel (Feb 9 2009]. While that seems like a small difference, 14 billion is the number of neurons in a baboon's brain and almost half the number in a gorilla's brain.
Our best glimpse into this process is the work with brain-damaged individuals and the functional MRI studies (fMRI). This amazing technology measures brain activity by detecting associated changes in blood flow. We can therefore see how systematic and discrete damage to a specific area, can dramatically impact behavior in very predictable ways. With fMRI, we can test for areas involved with cheating, disgust, sense of self, transcendence, and other factors associated with morality.
In neuroscience, synaptic plasticity is the ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken over time, in response to increases or decreases in their activity. There is a lot of misinformation concerning this ability; many people assume that any area of the brain can move its function or repair itself. That is an exaggeration and the plasticity part is more limited.
Common neurotransmitters include serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine (also known as adrenaline). Low dopamine levels can cause binge eating behavior, and is at the root of many addictive behaviors.
There have been instances where individuals have had significant damage to their limbic system, the portion of the brain responsible for motivation and emotions. Faced with making decisions on logic and reason alone, these individuals were frozen in “analysis-paralysis,” unable to make the simplest decisions. In other words, we need our emotions and that “gut feel.” For those who value logic and reason, this can be a challenge. Sometimes facts
are contradictory or just flat-out wrong.
If your subconscious is making all your major decisions, how is that free will? Jump or not, kill or not, marry or not? Many split-second decisions are made unconsciously.
The RAS, brain stem, consciousness is constant activation of the cortex. A lot what we call consciousness is transported via the thalamus. Its functions include relaying of sensory and motor signals to the cerebral cortex, and the regulation of consciousness, sleep, and alertness. All of this combines to form a strong sense of the "I feeling" that we are separate from our body. The brain is always trying to determine "where am I."
Besides humans, only chimpanzees, orangutans recognize themselves in a mirror. Studies show that humans become self-aware between 18 and 22 months (based on a mirror test with a dot on their face).
In one study, a specific neuron in a man’s brain was identified as the “Jennifer Aniston” neuron. Another one was correlated with pictures of Halle Berry. That is one, specific neuron.
What does this mean, other than men like beautiful women?
It means that a memory and the subsequent emotional reaction and then physical reaction could be predicated on a single neuron out of 87 billion! With the associative aspect of our brain I would think that there are many neurons for any give person or event. We could store the sight, smell, feel, and emotional baggage of a lifetime with a person in thousands of discrete areas of our brain.
Two neural correlates of consciousness–paper [PDF Link- technical]
One could argue that those people who are not that interested in sex, alcohol, or novelty have low dopamine levels. Perhaps the reward centers in their brain are not screaming for stimulation. This stands the notion of sin on its head. Why should someone be damned because of their inherent neural network and neurotransmitter levels? Sounds like damnation by neurobiology. Only if you assume the mind is separate, “other” or immaterial could it fix a damaged brain; otherwise we are being asked to fix a damaged brain with a damaged brain. Yes, maybe 10% are able to transcend the odds, but that’s just damnation by probability. Adding quantum probability here does not help us because there is no strategy or action that could help. It’s a non-starter. Accepting the impact of biology and our biological limitations is a path to knowing ourselves and ultimately fixing ourselves based on reason.