This always gets people goin :P


Free will does not exist

You might think you can prove free will exists by picking your nose in the next 5 seconds.

Done it? There, that was easy. You did something on your own, at a time of your choice..

Did you know the American neuroscientist Benjamin Libet has proven that before every such movement, there is a distinctive build up of electrical activity in the brain? AND this buildup happens about 1/2 second before your concisous decision to pick your nose

So, by the time you decide to pick your nose your body is already half way there. Which means your concious decision of making a decision (nose picking) is just kind of an add on, an after though that only happens once the brain has already set about its business.

To make it simpler, your brain is doing the real work, making your hands turn pages or reach for a soda and all the time your concious mind is tagging along behind.

Two neuroscientst working in Australia have gone even further. They found that when asking people to raise either their left or right hands, it was possible to influence their choice by electronically stimulating certain parts of their brains.

The scientsts could force the subjects to always choose to move their left hands. But despite their choice being electronically directed, these patients continued to report that they were freely choosing which hand to move.

original article
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/81bc32e4-d5e3-11db-99b7-000b5df10621.html