RE: Volitional Morality and Action Judgement

From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Sun May 23 2004 - 08:06:33 MDT


That hypothesis is not Libet's and it's not mine. I guess it's a "straw
man" that Dennett set up for the pleasure of demolishing it ;-)

I guess that Libet, Dennett, I and nearly everyone else agree that free
will and awareness are complex processes that occur extended over space
and time. In this view hypotheses like Dennett's "slow-drying-ink"
straw man are clearly silly. But the problem is, saying that these
things are complex processes occurring extended over space and time
doesn't tell you very much!!

ben

> Well he did say this:
> "Slow-drying-ink"
> "On this hypothesis, you actually decide to execute the
> Flick! exactly when
> the RP in your brain shows up, without any delay, but you
> don't get to
> compare that conscious decision with a result from the vision
> center for a
> good 300-plus milliseconds, the time it takes for you
> decision to cure before
> entering the comparison chamber."
>
> Perhaps I should stay quiet.
> On Sunday 23 May 2004 16:21, Philip Sutton wrote:
> > Hi Ben,
> >
> > > Libet's finding that conscious awareness of a stimulus or action
> > > tends to follow the actual stimulus action by about half a second.
> >
> > Is the stimuls time set at the point where the stimulus is
> picked up
> > in the sensory organs? Or the time when the stimulus
> report arrived
> > in the brain?
> >
> > If the former, how long would it take for a report to get from the
> > sensory organs to the brain?
> >
> > Cheers, Philip
>



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