Free Will?

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal tells us about brain research suggesting that we make decisions below the level of consciousness. We actually aren't aware of the decision already made by the brain for 10 seconds. This raises many interesting questions about what it means to be human.
Read the article HERE and then comment on it in the comments section below.

Do we really have Free Will? What is consciousness? How does consciously thinking about a problem affect the outcome? Is the experiment described in the article a valid one?

The Way We Think

Extending human rights to whales?

"Whales may share our kind of intelligence, researchers say after discovering brain cells previously found only in humans and other primates." Whales have bigger brains and more of those special brain cells we have before considered unique to primates.

According to this article in New Scientist, the kind of nerve cells in the human brain associated with complex social behavior and previously thought to define humans and great apes as different from other mammals has now been found in whales. More importantly, the number of these specialized cells is greater in whales even given that the whale brain is larger than the human brain.

"The cells occur in parts of the human brain that are thought to be responsible for our social organisation, empathy, speech, intuition about the feelings of others, and rapid “gut” reactions (see The cell that makes us human)." says New Scientist.

The article quotes Patric Hof of Mount Sinai Medical School in New York as saying, “They communicate through huge song repertoires, recognise their own songs and make up new ones. They also form coalitions to plan hunting strategies, teach these to younger individuals, and have evolved social networks similar to those of apes and humans.”

It is thought that whales developed these brain cells long before humans and other primates evolved theirs.

Like the development of the vertebrate eye in octopuses which are related to shell fish, this brain cell development in both whales and humans appears to be a case of "convergent evolution" and not the result of evolution from a common ancestor.

This finding is certain to raise many questions about what makes humans human as well as whether killing whales falls into a category more like murder than hunting. My grandmother used to say, "If it looks like a noodle, tastes like a noodle, cooks like a noodle, and feels like a noodle it is probably a noodle." So if it thinks like a human, acts like a human, feels like a human - is it a human?

Subject: So you too can understand.........

Bush Explains Medicare Drug Bill -- Verbatim Quote Submitted on 2005-12-13
16:35:14

WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: 'I don't really understand. How is the new plan going to
fix the problem?'

Verbatim response: PRESIDENT BUSH:

'Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost
drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the
table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price
increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being
considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers,
affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to
get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to that
has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled.
Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example,
benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the
increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits
will rise based upon inflation, supposed to wage increases. There is a
reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other
words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if
those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.'

So . . . does anyone out there have any idea what the President of the United States was saying? I don't think one sentence or one thought is completed. That, btw, is often a sign of Alcohol Brain Syndrome. Check it out.