Our brain is a prediction machine that is always active

Re:Our brain is a prediction machine that is always active by MaxBarraclough on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:42AM (#32412806)

In my experience, such emphasis on quantum phenomena tends to be the motivated reasoning of free will compatibilists: they hope to preserve the intuitive idea of free will by looking at what corners of non-determinism still remain in modern physics, emphasising any possible connection to the macro-scale mind, however tenuous. It's analogous to the God of the Gaps argument. [0]

Even assuming quantum phenomena are central to the brain's workings, the arguments still fail: you have no control over the quantum phenomena in your brain, so you still don't have free will in the naïve intuitive sense.

I see even less connection between quantum phenomena and consciousness. Consciousness need not depend on free will.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps

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Re:Our brain is a prediction machine that is always active by colordrops on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:41AM (#32413851)

I agree that some people think this way, but not I. I don't even believe there is a "you" to have free will. Who has control over anything in their brain? They are their brain.

I'm just thinking that perhaps there is a possibility that the brain evolved to take advantage of quantum phenomena to increase capability.

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