200 milliseconds of freedom
In 1979, the American psychologist Benjamin Libet conducted his famous experiment, which excited the scientific community, but somehow passed by the general public. And it’s in vain, because it shows the monstrous truth about our “free will”.
In short, the essence of the experiment was that electrodes were connected to the subject's brain for recording activity, sensors for recording movement were connected to the wrist, and a dial was placed before his eyes. The participant was asked to choose the time at which he wants to move his hand, fix this moment on the dial and perform the action. The results were stunning. First, the work of the brain was discovered, as a result of which he “made the decision”, and only after some time the person reproduced it. Later, the experiment was repeated using the latest equipment and even learned how to predict a decision that had not yet been made in the case of many subjects. It turned out that what we feel as a conscious volitional decision is only a consequence of the work of our brain. And he, in turn, makes a decision on action for about half a second before the mind realizes this choice. And every time a person sincerely and confidently believes that everything that happens in experience, he does according to his own conscious desire. But in the form of "free will" in the mind, this motive appears approximately 200 milliseconds before the real action.
In total, consciousness remains only 100-150 milliseconds to the "veto right" (in the last 50 milliseconds, the corresponding spinal motoneurons, which are responsible for physical activity), are already activated in parallel. This experience has been repeatedly reworked, criticized and redeveloped, and in general, with all the caveats, yes, it does. All our freedom is enclosed in a time interval equal to 200 milliseconds!
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And then even more interesting processes are connected here. If some kind of pattern of behavior in the form of neural connections is already formed in the brain, then the stronger these connections are, the greater the confidence in them and the less they are controlled by consciousness. Want to make sure? Try writing some text with your right and left hand. Obviously, in one case the process will take place almost unconsciously, and in the other it will need to be carefully controlled, spending energy on it (as a result, the brain will be forced to abandon a silly venture, which can be easily felt in the form of its “conscious decision”).
Consider another example. You wake up in the morning, not sleepy and frustrated, it's cold and dirty in the street, but you still have to get ready and go to the tired work. You scowl your teeth, eat a sandwich, drink it with tea, go out at home, go to the bus stop, sit in an overcrowded minibus and then someone steps on your foot. I think no one doubts what will happen next. And now let's think. The anger resulting from the above, appears consciously or not? And how many of us can get rid of her? Depending on the level of development of consciousness, the further course of events can be controlled, but anger always arises regardless of our desires. Do you still believe in the freedom of your decisions, or are we all “slaves of sin”?
By the way, it is this phenomenon that easily explains the deja vu effect, when, as a result of brain disruption, the border of 200 milliseconds is overcome and consciousness is directly involved in shaping the decision. The effect itself occurs at the moment when the mind is re-informed by the brain about the decision.
Thus, it turns out that we are just high-tech biological computers with the possibility of self-learning and reprogramming. And all of our freedom is really to either accept or reject the solutions offered by the brain on the basis of patterns.
If the topic is interesting, in the future I plan to talk about how exactly you can hack and reprogram your brain.
UPDATE: The article caused a lively discussion, so the topic of the community is interesting. But the well-wishers leaked all my karma to me, as a result of which the continuation cannot be published. As I understand the opinions are divided. Therefore, I propose to proceed as follows. Those who are interested in may have to wait until I have the opportunity to publish a sequel with explanations, and the rest, instead of minus, just ignore this “okolonauchny nonsense” and do not read more of the author :)
UPDATE2: For thirsting for scientific evidence and authoritative sources, here is the video . Thanks to the devpreview habraiser and Pavel Klucherov
In short, the essence of the experiment was that electrodes were connected to the subject's brain for recording activity, sensors for recording movement were connected to the wrist, and a dial was placed before his eyes. The participant was asked to choose the time at which he wants to move his hand, fix this moment on the dial and perform the action. The results were stunning. First, the work of the brain was discovered, as a result of which he “made the decision”, and only after some time the person reproduced it. Later, the experiment was repeated using the latest equipment and even learned how to predict a decision that had not yet been made in the case of many subjects. It turned out that what we feel as a conscious volitional decision is only a consequence of the work of our brain. And he, in turn, makes a decision on action for about half a second before the mind realizes this choice. And every time a person sincerely and confidently believes that everything that happens in experience, he does according to his own conscious desire. But in the form of "free will" in the mind, this motive appears approximately 200 milliseconds before the real action.
In total, consciousness remains only 100-150 milliseconds to the "veto right" (in the last 50 milliseconds, the corresponding spinal motoneurons, which are responsible for physical activity), are already activated in parallel. This experience has been repeatedly reworked, criticized and redeveloped, and in general, with all the caveats, yes, it does. All our freedom is enclosed in a time interval equal to 200 milliseconds!
')
And then even more interesting processes are connected here. If some kind of pattern of behavior in the form of neural connections is already formed in the brain, then the stronger these connections are, the greater the confidence in them and the less they are controlled by consciousness. Want to make sure? Try writing some text with your right and left hand. Obviously, in one case the process will take place almost unconsciously, and in the other it will need to be carefully controlled, spending energy on it (as a result, the brain will be forced to abandon a silly venture, which can be easily felt in the form of its “conscious decision”).
Consider another example. You wake up in the morning, not sleepy and frustrated, it's cold and dirty in the street, but you still have to get ready and go to the tired work. You scowl your teeth, eat a sandwich, drink it with tea, go out at home, go to the bus stop, sit in an overcrowded minibus and then someone steps on your foot. I think no one doubts what will happen next. And now let's think. The anger resulting from the above, appears consciously or not? And how many of us can get rid of her? Depending on the level of development of consciousness, the further course of events can be controlled, but anger always arises regardless of our desires. Do you still believe in the freedom of your decisions, or are we all “slaves of sin”?
By the way, it is this phenomenon that easily explains the deja vu effect, when, as a result of brain disruption, the border of 200 milliseconds is overcome and consciousness is directly involved in shaping the decision. The effect itself occurs at the moment when the mind is re-informed by the brain about the decision.
Thus, it turns out that we are just high-tech biological computers with the possibility of self-learning and reprogramming. And all of our freedom is really to either accept or reject the solutions offered by the brain on the basis of patterns.
If the topic is interesting, in the future I plan to talk about how exactly you can hack and reprogram your brain.
UPDATE: The article caused a lively discussion, so the topic of the community is interesting. But the well-wishers leaked all my karma to me, as a result of which the continuation cannot be published. As I understand the opinions are divided. Therefore, I propose to proceed as follows. Those who are interested in may have to wait until I have the opportunity to publish a sequel with explanations, and the rest, instead of minus, just ignore this “okolonauchny nonsense” and do not read more of the author :)
UPDATE2: For thirsting for scientific evidence and authoritative sources, here is the video . Thanks to the devpreview habraiser and Pavel Klucherov
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/208836/
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