Melbourne MX News
Free will may be illusion
If you are reading this while sitting on a train seat and heading for home, you may not have had any other choice.
"Free will" - the most cherished tenet of humanity - may be little more than an illusion.
Experiments have shown we could be little more than pieces of biological clockwork with not more free will than a watch.
German scientists have shown that our subconscious minds may be dictating our actions long before we realise it.
"The impression that we are freely able to choose between different possible courses of action is fundamental to our mental health." says study head Prof John Dylan Hayes.
Volunteers were asked to view a stream of letters on a computer screen and, at a point of their choosing, press a button and remember the letter that was on the screen.
The volunteers were also connected to "mind-reading" MRI scanners.
The study showed voluteers' brains reaching decisions about pressing one of the buttons several seconds before they actually thought they had made up their minds.
The experiment suggests what we think of as a "conscious decision" may be no such thing and much of what we do each day may be on "autopilot".
This raises the scenario that criminals cannot be held responsible for their actions.
"It would lead to no one being held responsible for anything," Haynes admitted.