Complexity and Free Will
While there are several ways to generate complexity, our main concern
is its reduction or simplification. Like how to capture the quintessence
of a complex system like the brain? The following story will reveal some
unpleasant side effects of this venture.
In the heart of the scientific revolution lies the insight that phenomena
in nature can be explained rationally. Phenomena are represented by simple
concepts which are then handled rationally. For instance a moving body
is represented by its center of mass and its trajectory is a trajectory
of the center of mass. Generally, Newton’s laws apply solely to similar
representations and therefore cannot be regarded as laws of nature. Fortunately
such representations are adequate to handle our daily activity and keep
us happy.
The main problem of science today is how to represent complex and interacting
phenomena like the stock exchange. It is unfortunate that the plethora
of stock market representations suggested by experts does not make us
rich. The pessimists claim that the random walk is the best representation
of the stock exchange which does not
explain why some still get rich.
Nerve cells in the brain form a complex network through which they communicate
by electric signals called action potentials. Some neuroscientists assume
that like bits, these action potentials are elementary units of the brain
computer. Decode them and you gain access to our secret thoughts. Some
even believe that these action potentials are our thoughts. In reality
they are no more than representations of the brain activity.
Several years ago a neuroscientist named Benjamin Libet decided to study
the relationship between our will and these action potentials. He asked
subjects to move their finger and report when they decided to move it.
Libet found that the nerve impulse from the brain to the finger was on
its way before the subjects reported having made their decision. His conclusion
was amazing. It is not they who decided to move their finger, it was
their brain. Soon distinguished neuroscientists and philosophers joined
him to announce that we lack free will. The brain decides for us.
This false conclusion was initiated by the assumption that action potentials
are the essence of our brain activity while in reality they are arbitrarily
chosen representations. Measuring other representations, and there are
many, one might conclude that our free will still kicks as before. Yet
there is more to it. The brain is part of the nervous system which interconnects
all cells in the body. Every cell in our body has a dedicated nerve fiber
with which it connects to the brain. When neuroscientists speak of the
brain as a complex network they mean only cells in the brain and ignore
the neural network in the body which may be even more complex than the
brain itself. The brain is like a mushroom which belongs to a huge network
of hyphae permeating the soil. It is embodied
in the nervous system and in us.
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