Seite - 125 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

Cyberneuroethics • 125 At this stage, it is also important to emphasise how the concept of predict- ability can exist alongside both Determinism and free will. Of course, if neu- roscience can demonstrate that a human brain can be completely explained mechanistically, then it would, theoretically, be possible to completely predict what will happen. But the concept of predictability may also be compatible with free will if, for instance, it is possible to predict which choice a person will make, even though he or she retains a genuine freedom to do otherwise. The concepts of predictability and free will are indeed quite different in nature. This implies that being able to predict a certain decision in a person does not mean that he or she is not responsible for this decision. State of the Current Debate A number of scientific results have been used to make the claim that free will may be an illusion. This included a series of experiments performed by the American scientist Benjamin Libet (1916–2007), in which individuals were asked to indicate, as exactly as they could, the moment when they were first aware of their intention to initiate a movement action.108 At the same time, the researchers examined the moment when the brain actually started to prepare the movement (the so-called ‘readiness potential’) measured by EEG.109 The experiment demonstrated that the occurrence of the readiness potential preceded conscious awareness of the intention to move by up to half a second. In another similar experiment, scientists were able to use fMRI to predict simple decisions made by research participants up to 11 seconds before they seemed aware of their decisions.110 In these investigations, the research participants appeared to be unaware that their behaviour was the result of automatic, unconscious processes that were controlling their actions.111 Other researchers have described a whole range of situations, from facilitated communication to automatic writing, where persons believe they are not the authors of actions they have initiated and controlled.112 Though these results have been reproduced and confirmed, the discussion as to what they actually mean remains open. Some contend that they provide strong evidence that individuals do not consciously initiate actions and that a person’s sense of conscious deliberation, agency and autonomous decision- making is illusory.113 Then again, others believe that the research results may in fact be more complex, since the experiments are very simplistic in nature. While there is no reason to question that the brain may begin to prepare a person for action, this does not mean that a person does not have an ability for con- scious deliberation and action that builds upon his or her sub-intentional acts.114 This open access edition has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale.