Wednesday, May 13, 2009

More scientific bullshitery

Really, scientists? You dont see the utter absurdity of this?
Free will, or at least the place where we decide to act, is sited in a part of the brain called the parietal cortex, new research suggests.

When a neurosurgeon electrically jolted this region in patients undergoing surgery, they felt a desire to, say, wiggle their finger, roll their tongue or move a limb. Stronger electrical pulses convinced patients they had actually performed these movements, although their bodies remained motionless.

Let me get this straight. You jolt a part of the brain and they feel a desire to move something. How is that free will?
"What it tells us is there are specific brain regions that are involved in the consciousness of your movement," says Angela Sirigu, a neuroscientist at the CNRS Cognitive Neuroscience Centre in Bron, France, who led the study.

Right. And duh. There are specific regions in the brain that are involved in consciousness of movement. Explain again what this has to do with free will, please. Right now I am conscious of typing words for this post. It still doesnt answer the question of whether or not Im doing this freely or an unbroken chain of cause-and-effect events dating back to the big bang has rendered my typing these words inevitable. Your little experiment with electrecuting my brain has nothing to say about which option is true. In other words, this is bullshit.

1 comment:

grifter said...

they have jolted the part of my brain which makes me post a meaningless comment. faaaaaaantastic!