Information and free will (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, October 04, 2011, 15:23 (4778 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Without replying to your each and every example of how our brains can do different things, and even lose capacities, it is simple enough to note that brain reasoning capacity and knowledge capacities are reasonably measured by IQ tests, and those tests give a bell-shaped curve. Brains are different in every person. Thre are as different as height, body conformation, hair color, complexion, etc. Brains are plastic and can have IQ raised by maternal input in very early childhood. We are what our brains can do for us and we can enhance that capacity by exercising the brain. We are what our bodies can do for us: at 5' 8", my current height, I don't do as well in a pick-up game of basketball as the fellow who is 6'8". 
None of this changes my concept that free will is free. I can go as far as my brain can take me at the Y in the road. So can everyone else.-
My own examples illustrated the direct impact of material influences on memory, will and identity, all of which are inseparably linked together. Your examples also illustrate features of our identity which are beyond our control (including maternal input). The only hint of freedom that you have offered us is that "we can enhance that capacity by exercising the brain", but even that leaves open the question of what it is that makes us WANT to enhance its capacity, and makes us WILLING to do the work involved. 
 
The ultimate subject of this discussion is whether we have a will/mind/identity that can exist independently of the material body. Eventually it will probably lead us back to the paranormal, NDEs and OBEs, but at this stage of the argument, the evidence seems to be heavily in favour of the material explanation. If we are to consider the possibility of an identity independent of the body, we do need at least a theoretical explanation of why material causes such as alcohol, drugs, diseases and physical abnormalities can have such a profound effect on a non-material will/memory/mind. Perhaps you will allow me to lean over on your side of the fence for a moment and offer you a very speculative one: if the identity is separate from the brain, the brain must act as a receiver. When something goes wrong with my TV, I may get all kinds of garbled signals, and maybe that's what happens in the above cases. The "real" identity (whatever that is) can't get through.*** Is this a line of thought worth pursuing? It doesn't explain the source of our identity, the mechanics of consciousness, memory, emotion etc. or the changes that take place as we go through life, but nor does the material explanation.
 
One more question: if the will and identity are immaterial, how and when do you imagine they actually come into being, in relation to the physical conception and birth of each different individual?-*** Tony's computer analogy is probably better than my TV one. Thank you.