On Thursday, November 29, 2012 8:05:32 PM UTC-5, Stephen Paul King wrote: > > On 11/29/2012 2:31 PM, Craig Weinberg wrote: > > The study showed that within 60 milliseconds, the right posterior superior >> temporal sulcus (also known as TPJ area), located in the back of the brain, >> was first activated, with different activity depending on *whether the >> harm was intentional or accidental*. It was followed in quick succession >> by the amygdala, often linked with emotion, and the ventromedial prefrontal >> cortex (180 milliseconds), the portion of the brain that plays a critical >> role in moral decision-making. >> >> There was no such response in the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal >> cortex when the harm was accidental. >> > > http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2012/11/28/moral-evaluations-harm-are-instant-and-emotional-brain-study-shows > > Seems like being able to tell the difference between an accident and free > will is a top priority for human consciousness. Under .06 seconds. That's > more than three times faster than it takes to recognize an emotion in a > human face. > -- > > Hi Craig, > > This is interesting as it shows the importance of distinguishing > accidental from intentional acts. The former need to response as they > where, in a sense, unavoidable since there is not way to avoid such in the > future, but the latter can be avoided by some subsequent action. This seems > to point to a built in understanding of causality and probability in the > 'hardware'. > > -- > Onward! > > Stephen > > Exactly. It seems to me that this relatively instantaneous awareness of the situation as a meaningful gestalt runs completely contrary to what we would expect in a comp world, where determinations of agency should be a long, esoteric computation. If free will were, after all, an illusion, then there would really be not much of an advantage in discerning intention to cause harm from a simple propensity to cause harm.
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