"Malcolm"  wrote in message
news:bjgeed$1k60$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
>
> "Guy Hoelzer"  wrote in message
> > It seems to me the notion that human cognition can
override natural
> > selection is a contemporary manifestation of the old
Victorian view that
> > humans somehow exist outside of nature.  When will we
(educated
> > human populations) finally embrace the only
scientifically consistent
> > position that we are trying to understand nature from
the inside?
> >
> Humans make most decisions in an adaptive way. For
instance, if you ask a
> person to walk from one end of a field to the other, most
people will choose
> the shortest or easiest route, minimisng their time and
energy expenditure.
> However people will also insist that they had "free will"
to walk along
> three sides of the square if they so chose. We don't know
if animals also
> have a subjective feeling of free will or not, since they
don't have
> language and don't have a social convention that free will
exists. Free will
> is not something that we can ignore, but it is not
something that we have
> any good theories about either.

"Free will is not something that we can ignore"? But we do
it every day!  :)  I agree we have no _good_ theories--but
if you want to know my  speculation (and I'm sure you do
) it's simple. IMO, putative "free will"/or "action"
(FW) is simply an artifact of brain memory-processing, as is
so-called self-consciousness (SC).

SC is a fundamentally a result of the unique memories one
accumulates since birth (and maybe before too)--which are
processed by neurological functions of a brain sub-module
(Mc)
honed thru evolution to create a self-dialog ("speaking to
ones' self" so to speak. Mc constantly monitors all sense
impressions being input and purposeful and random "thoughts"
(basic processing of memory for problem solving or for
analyzing and/or adding short-term memory to long-term
storage for future use. FW is another brain processing modul
e (Mf, either separate from or
integrated with Mc) which is the "action arm" of thought.
Through a delay loop(s) in the brain, an optimum-action
response to
events is automatically initiated, but the perception of the
initiation by Mc is delayed by of the order of nanoseconds,
causing the illusion (FW) that it follows rather than
precedes its
"planning." QED.

Well, IMO, that's it; except that the neuro-physiological/
biochemical details have yet to be worked out of course. :)
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