In the eighties of the last century, American neurologists, studying the capabilities of the brain and human consciousness, came to an unexpected conclusion - a person is completely deprived of free will and makes decisions based on a ready-made algorithm.
Moreover, with the help of special devices, you can predict all thoughts and actions of a person. So how do we make decisions? How does our consciousness depend on the brain? Is there free will?
First, let's formulate what free will is. This is the ability of a person to make an informed choice and take conscious actions in a particular situation. For centuries, scientists and philosophers have searched for the answer: what is consciousness and how is it related to the brain and body? And, as it turned out, our consciousness plays a secondary role here.
In 1983, a group of scientists led by Benjamin Libet conducted a very interesting experiment.
The subject watched the green dot on the oscilloscope screen and had to remember its position at the moment when he moved his finger or flexed his wrist.
In the second case, the subject had to not move his fingers in reality, but only mentally plan to do so.
To pinpoint the exact timing of the excitation of the brain and the subsequent contraction of the arm muscles, the researchers placed special medical sensors on the subject's head and arms.
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As a result, Liebert received three indicators: the time when the subject decided to perform the action; the time the brain reacted to it; and the time when the hand finally moved.
According to the logic of things, first a person decides to move a finger, after which the brain gives a command to the muscles of the hands to fulfill the will of the owner.
But in reality, everything turned out to be different. According to the sensors, the brain was activated first. It was the brain that made the decision to lift a finger. Then, after 0.5 seconds, this solution reached the person's consciousness, he decided to move his finger and noted the position of the green dot on the screen, and after another 0.2 seconds the muscles worked.
Thus, judging by the results of the experiment, the brain is ahead of consciousness by half a second and influences the decisions of consciousness. That is, a person has no power over his behavior. He thinks he decided to do something, but the brain gave this command before the person realized his desire. In theory, it has two tenths of a second to undo the brain's decision. But in practice, this time is not enough to analyze the situation.
After Benjamin Libet, experiments with the brain continued. At the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive Psychology and Neurophysiology, Leipzig, researchers were able to calculate the time a thought arises in the brain before it reaches consciousness.
It turned out that the brain accepts and processes thoughts 7 seconds before they reach consciousness. The task was similar - the subject must decide to perform and do some action.
Noticing brain activity, scientists already knew in 7 seconds that a person would move his hand.
It turns out that if someone can predict decisions and actions of a person in advance, then free will simply does not exist.
That's not all. In 1999, American neuroscientist Yang Dan proved that the brain is no different from the computer. And if you correctly calculate the encoding of brain impulses, we can easily read all the information that appears in the brain.
He performed an experiment on a cat. The researcher attached the sensors to the cat's head and showed it different pictures. The brain's reaction to each picture was transmitted to the computer in the form of electrical impulses. Based on the data from these impulses and correlating them with each image, the biologist was able to write a code that converted these impulses from cats back to the pictures that she saw.
Of course, this is just the beginning. There is still a lot to learn, organize and study. But in theory, it turns out that knowing how the brain of a particular person works, his reaction to the environment, you can pick up a key to him and write down his thoughts and memories, consider his character and personality as a whole.
It turns out that consciousness is not the master of our thoughts and actions, but the brain is a biological computer. And people will soon learn to hack this computer.