The Illusion of Conscious Will (The Autopilot)

Have you ever walked all the way to your kitchen and then realized you do not even remember deciding to walk there? Your body just did it! Some scientists think our brains are like a movie that is playing, and we are just watching it happen. We feel like we are the driver, but maybe the car is on autopilot and our brain just tells us a story about how we chose to turn left. It is like watching a movie and thinking you are the character on the screen. It reminds us to be humble because our brains are doing a lot of work we do not even see!

Your brain is doing a lot of work you do not even see. Libet wired people to machines and asked them to flick their wrists whenever they felt like it. He found that the brain began preparing the movement three hundred milliseconds before the person consciously decided to move. The brain moved first. The feeling of deciding came second. The decision was a story the brain told after it had already acted. You are not the director of the movie. You are the narrator. And the narrator comes in after the scene was filmed. This does not mean you are powerless. It means you are more than your conscious mind. It means the you that makes decisions is bigger than the you that is aware of making decisions. The autopilot is not your enemy. The autopilot is you. The deeper you. The faster you. The you that catches a falling glass before you think to catch it. The question is not whether you are in control. The question is which you is doing the controlling.

Wegner's illusionism + Libet experiments: brain activity precedes conscious 'decision' by ~300ms. The experience of will is a post-hoc narrative. The question is not whether you are in control. The question is which you is doing the controlling.

SOUND: The hum of a computer working in the background: the sound of processes running beneath your awareness.

SMELL: The room smell of your own house that you do not notice anymore: the nose proving your brain edits without asking.

TASTE: Swallowing your saliva without thinking about it: the tongue operating on a script you never wrote.

TOUCH: Your clothes against your skin which you usually forget: the body filtering out information you did not request.

SIGHT: Watching your eyes blink automatically in a mirror: the body performing an action the mind did not authorize.

BODY: Walking up stairs without looking at your feet: the body navigating a world the conscious mind checked out of.

Music: Lucky by Radiohead

Part of Free Will & Choice — CONSCIOUSNESS — Education Revelation