Free Will:

Here is the Hidden Brain episode where I recently heard this idea again. Free will is not the focus of the episode but it is a fun one and worth the listen. Here is an earlier episode devoted to the question of free will from the perspective of modern neuroscience. This is related to our ideas of a clockwork universe. The vision of many scientists a couple of centuries ago was that the universe is much like a very complicated clock. It is a large and interconnected set of cause and effect actions. If we just knew enough about the state of the universe we could predict where the physical universe would be in the future.

Quantum mechanics and probability through a monkey wrench in that model 100 years ago when it became apparent that some fundamental aspects of what happens in the world are statistical rather than prescriptive. In a given situation one of several outcomes is possible and which one can't be predicted with certainty. For a long time we have generally felt that our behavior and choices as humans was therefore outside the possibility of rigid prediction.

Modern neuroscience is begining to make us wonder about this a little bit. I don't pretent to know enough about this to discuss it but I want to have a discussion with you about how we would even try to figure out if the the idea has merit....discuss:)