Re: It was only a matter of time

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

On Fri, Mar 18th, 2011 at 8:43 AM, Augusto Haro <augustoharo@gmail.com> wrote:

> Ok, but you can refrain from killing a small animal. A cat/dog/orca
> apparently cannot choose between doing so nor not. They behave
> instinctively in a greater measure than us.

Most of human behaviour is driven by the non-conscious parts of the brain. This 
is why criminal 
profiling is useful, and how lie detectors work. If we were always 100% 
conscious of our decisions 
and actions, and had full control over them, then such behavioural predictive 
measures would be 
useless.

Brain studies have shown that many of our decisions are made before we are 
consciously aware of 
them, and that the brain simply delays acting on those decisions until it has 
first sent the intention 
to the parts of our brain that produce conscious thought. Because we seem to 
become aware of the 
decision before acting on it, we assume cause-and-effect and think we 
consciously made that 
decision. In reality our brain is simply fooling us into believing in the 
illusion of free will.
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/mind_decision

Humans are slaves to instinct as much as any other species. Should we torture 
ourselves with a 
sense of higher responsibility that our physiology doesn't allow us to 
accomplish?

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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