>>Please! What IS Crick's model? Can you give us a flavour of it?
>
>My pleasure. Here is what Francis Crick says about Free Will in his "The
>Astonishing Hypothesis, the Scientific Search for the Soul". He makes three
>assumptions (axioms?...:-)):
>
>(1) There is a part of the brain which "is concerned with making plans for
>future actions, without necessarily carrying them out". We can be even
>conscious of making those plans by an instant recall.
No arguments there really, since I feel that I make plans, and also feel
that I'm aware of them as I make them.
>(2) The computations are based on the current state of the brain and current
>inputs from other parts of the brain (past experience, senses, voltage
>applied by Dr. Plante :-), infection with the Hypocrisy Virus, etc.). We
>are not conscious of the "computations" made by this part of the brain. We
>only know the "decisions" which appear to us as our plans.
......
>(3) Which plan of action is implemented depends on the same mechanism. We
>are only "informed" of the decision. In Cricks's words "one has immediate
>recall of what is decided but not of the computations that went into the
>decision"
This... is this compatible with the "decision before conscious awareness"
result? It seems to be... through my linguistic perceptual filters, anyway...
>"Such a machine" -- he says -- "will appear to itself to have Free Will,
>provided it can personify its behavior -- that is, it has an image of
>'itself' ".
Hmm...
>He ends his book with a suggestion that "Free Will is located in or near the
>anterior cingulate sulcus" although other areas of the brain may be also
>involved, and... more research needs to be done.
Stop: Free will IS located? Or APPEARS, to that system, TO BE located?
Because, something APPEARING TO HAVE FREE WILL is nothing like a thing WITH
free will, free will being "located in the anterior cingulate sulcus".
Dave Pape
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