Study hints that fruit flies have free will

w1z4rd

w1z4rd

Karmic Sangoma
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A spark of free will may exist in even the tiny brain of the humble fruit fly, based on new findings that could shed light on the nature and evolution of free will in humans.

Future research delving further into free will could lead to more advanced robots, scientists added. The result, joked neurobiologist Björn Brembs from the Free University Berlin, could be "world robot domination."

"Seriously though," Brembs said that programming robots with aspects of free will "may lead to more realistic and probably even more efficient behavior, which could be decisive in truly autonomous robots needed for planetary exploration."
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18684016/
 
Yeah blasphemy for the new age: all creatures from great to smallest have "consciousness," and a will to live. Eeek, killing an insect equals murder! :eek: :D
 
Uhm.. *confused* so people believed animals were mindless things going about their mundane lives?
 
By their logic, pathing algorithms are free will. Hey, my machine has free will.

Oh, yeah, just checking but is reading the article considered cheating? I mean, on slashdot, you would be burned at the stake for the crime of hovering the mouse cursor over the link.
 
Quick question. Will the following quote be a reasonable assessment of what happens in natural science?

QUOTE:

"Abstract.
In the history of all the natural sciences we see three aspects:
First, a hit-and-miss gathering of facts;
second, a formulation of theories to "explain" these facts; and
third, intelligent criticism to revise and improve the accepted theories to bring them into better accord with new discoveries.
These three aspects do not always develop in this order; indeed they all react with one another endlessly, though ultimately a state of stability is reached where the science rests on facts and theoretical explanations as definite and settled as any human knowledge can become."
 
Mr TB said:
Quick question. Will the following quote be a reasonable assessment of what happens in natural science?

QUOTE:

"Abstract.
In the history of all the natural sciences we see three aspects:
First, a hit-and-miss gathering of facts;
second, a formulation of theories to "explain" these facts; and
third, intelligent criticism to revise and improve the accepted theories to bring them into better accord with new discoveries.
These three aspects do not always develop in this order; indeed they all react with one another endlessly, though ultimately a state of stability is reached where the science rests on facts and theoretical explanations as definite and settled as any human knowledge can become."
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Yes but you missed the most major one of all: the "aha" experience, where 'someone' has 'sudden,' major insight into a system or (the making of) a theory (like Einstein and the theory of relativity.) "To me," it seems lone geniuses make the major inroads and 'the rest' follow along.

//and if you want to extend it this is the whole reason why we do not sign up to the police state (or any 'uniform' state,) ie, creatives and 'geniuses' invent the world (not policeman.)
 
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kilo39 said:
//and if you want to extend it this is the whole reason why we do not sign up to the police state (or any 'uniform' state,) ie, creatives and 'geniuses' invent the world (not policeman.)
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Well the nazis had a very creative society full of "geniuses":p

For a police state they made a hell of a lot of breakthroughs
 
kilo39 said:
Yes but you missed the most major one of all: the "aha" experience, where 'someone' has 'sudden,' major insight into a system or (the making of) a theory (like Einstein and the theory of relativity.) "To me," it seems lone geniuses make the major inroads and 'the rest' follow along.
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I would say that in many cases these supposed "aha" moments are not sudden at all; the scientists have been working on them for ages, and the breakthrough is a result of hard work and dedication.
 
alanf85 said:
Well the nazis had a very creative society full of "geniuses":p

For a police state they made a hell of a lot of breakthroughs
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Ag where do you get this garbage? Yes, jewish geniuses (if you wish to separate) and look what happened to them. :mad:

Claymore said:
I would say that in many cases these supposed "aha" moments are not sudden at all; the scientists have been working on them for ages, and the breakthrough is a result of hard work and dedication.
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Yes most say they stand on the shoulders of giants but that is not to deny the major premise: that it is not (necessarily) teams but individuals applying individual mind. It is for this reason 'individuality' and 'personal opinion' and 'freedom' is to be maintained and why opinions such as those expressed by alanf are doubly despicable in his condoning or excusing the police state.

"Freedom" implies the creativity of the individual and it is those individuals who go on to do great things (which they would otherwise never do without free thought and free association.)
 
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So you're equating free will with having a soul, erm, ok, first time I've heard that argument but best of luck to ya on that one.
 
There is no such thing as free will.

(Sorry, I felt a sudden compulsion to say that).

:D
 
kilo39 said:
Ag where do you get this garbage? Yes, jewish geniuses (if you wish to separate) and look what happened to them. :mad:
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Why don't you open your history books and see what advancements, particularly technological, were made under the nazis :o
 
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alanf85 said:
Why don't you open your history books and see what advancements, particularly technological, were made under the nazis :o
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By this I assume you think 'nazis' were a good thing?
 
kilo39 said:
By this I assume you think 'nazis' were a good thing?
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Where did you get that idea :o

It's a fact.

Simple

EDIT:So you don't get more :confused: I'm referring to the technological advancements made under nazism.
 
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I have heard that the Nazi's made HUGE strides in medical sciences because they experimented on PEOPLE with no regard for their lives. I have however also heard that the advances they may were nigligible becuase they used to do stupid stuff .. like put a baby outside in the cold to see how long it could live, and put a baby in water and slowly raise teh temperature to what happens yadah yadah yadah etc etc etc... madasses!! So which is it? Did the nazis actually make significant advances in medical science or not?
 
Just trying to suss the nazi discussion here... Nazis were clever so clever people are Nazis. Is that it alan?
 
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