16 Questions
What is the essential aspect of the 'capacity to do otherwise' concept in the context of free will?
The ability to make deliberate choices
Who proposed the idea of 'rational deliberation' as a key feature of free will?
Locke
What is the primary difference between indeterministic and deterministic theories of free will?
Determinism suggests that past events determine future outcomes, while indeterminism does not
What is the primary distinction between exploration and exploitation in decision-making?
Exploitation involves choosing the best known option, while exploration involves trying new options
What is the organism that is commonly used to study genes related to aging and longevity?
Caenorhabditis elegans
What is the term for the process by which bacteria like E. coli change their direction of movement?
Run and tumble
Who proposed the idea that free will involves 'wanting what you want'?
Frankfurt
What is the term for the idea that our behavior is governed by internal or external forces that we cannot control?
Determinism
In the context of random walks and Thorndike's puzzle box, what do cats initially use to get out of the box and get to the food?
Trial and error
What is similar to bacteria like E. coli in terms of behavior?
Cats in Thorndike's puzzle box
What is the purpose of neuromodulators like norepinephrine and dopamine?
To enhance focus and attention
What is channel noise, and how does it affect behavior?
Molecular noise in neurons, affecting response to stimuli
What is the concept of 'Hobbesian capacity to do otherwise' related to?
Free will and indeterminism
What is the result of sensitivity to initial conditions at the edges of chaos?
Unpredictable outcomes
What is redundancy in the context of cognitive processes?
A measure of reduction from maximum entropy
What was the task in the experiment by Baddeley et al. (1998)?
To generate a series of random digits
Study Notes
Free Will
- Can be defined as the ability to be free from one's past and simultaneously act in accordance with one's will
- Involves having a historical identity, but being able to show how to be ahistorical
Design Features of Neurocognitive Free Will
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- Capacity to do otherwise (Hobbes, 1839)
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- "Wanting what you want" (Frankfurt, 1971)
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- Rational deliberation (Locke, 1768)
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- Self-awareness: the real self-view (Wolf, 1993)
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- Consciousness, effortful (executive processing) (Knobe & Nichols, 2011)
Indeterministic Theory
- Suggests that will is free and that deliberate choices and actions are not determined by or predicted from antecedent causes
- Past does not predict the future
Deterministic Theory
- Suggests that the past predicts the future, implying that free will is an illusion
- Behavior is governed by internal or external forces that we can't control
Capacity to Do Otherwise
- Hobbes, 1839
- Exploration vs. exploitation:
- Exploitation involves choosing the best known option based on past experience
- Exploration involves trying out new options that may lead to better outcomes in the future
Examples of Exploration and Exploitation
- Dating: moving from exploration to exploitation
- Caenorhabitis elegans: used for studying genes to understand aging, age-related diseases, and mechanisms of longevity
- E. coli: random reorientation, rotating flagella clockwise or counterclockwise
- Thorndike's puzzle box: a hungry cat learning to get out of a box to get food
Unpredictability in Adversarial Interactions
- Combat escalation games: wasps
- Evasion: Dominici et al., 2008
- Evolution and the theory of games: John Maynard Smith
Stimulus-Response with Tunable Randomness
- Adding dice to the stimulus-response solution
- Hobbesian capacity to do otherwise
Channel Noise and Neuromodulators
- Channel noise: molecular noise in neurons, responding to outside noise
- Examples: busy train station, taking a different path
- Neuromodulators: norepinephrine and dopamine, releasing and making people focus more
- Dopamine controls exploitation
Sensitivity to Initial Conditions
- At edges of chaos, small differences in initial conditions lead to drastically different outcomes
- Quantum fluctuation: taking advantage of the universe's indeterminism, generating solutions, and amplifying noise
- Sensitive to differences of "arbitrarily small size"
- Liberation, free will because it's indeterministic
Redundancy
- A measure of reduction from maximum entropy caused by repeating transitions between numbers
- Examples: not being able to think clearly, being taught how to ride a bike, and being distracted by a conversation
Explore the concept of free will, its definition, and the design features of neurocognitive free will, including capacity to do otherwise, wanting what you want, rational deliberation, and self-awareness.
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