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From: larry@grkermit.UUCP (Larry Kolodney)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Does Brain Science Contradict Free Will?
Message-ID: <643@grkermit.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 1-Sep-83 13:10:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: grkermit.643
Posted: Thu Sep  1 13:10:45 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Sep-83 22:22:00 EDT
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Organization: GenRad Inc., Concord, MA
Lines: 36

From Laura Creighton:
3: The motions of the molecules of the chemicals in the brain as they attain
   chemical equalibrium can only be described in terms of probabilities.

4: Thus, unless our understanding of chemistry, or probabilities change
   (possible, I guess, but highly unlikely at this date) one can only talk
   about the probability of neuron X being stimulated.

5: Thus, you can not build an entirely deterministic model of consciousness
   even if you could map the value of the firings (and the intensity of
   the firings) of certain neurons into their results.
   (this is an oversimplification of what one would actually have to do)




The reason you can only talk about the molecules in the brain in terms
of probaility is because it is impossible for us to observe with any
accuracy the individual molecules.  Thus, we talk about the 'average'
molecule.  This rule is made absolute by the uncertainty principle,
which says that no matter how good our measurement instruments are, we
can never get a high resolution of both momentum and position.  Without
those data, we cannot predict the value of those data in the future,
except on a probabilistic basis.

That doesn't mean the path of an individual molecule is not
predetermined, it just means we can never predict it.  THus, for all
intents and purposes, the path IS probabilistic.  BUt the actuality of
the matter can never be know.  (anyone care to flame about the
difference between perceived reality and reality?)
-- 
Larry Kolodney (The Devil's Advocate)
{linus decvax}!genrad!grkermit!larry (until Sept. 8)
(ARPA) lkk@mit-ml (after sept. 1)