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Criminal Law and free will

We have already worked in a different place with the question of whether humans have free will. The result was that, regardless of how the "free will" means that man in any case under very specific conditions of each case - that his life story, his Experience, which he classified as important decision criteria, his present mood, etc. - can decide on only one way. Rewind back to the time 100 times and lets the people make the decision again, he will get the same result every time.

The question that arises then is: What do we actually punish the criminals? We have charged them each time that is before (legal category of personal " debt") that they have consciously decided against the law and the injustice and committed the crime. Should we rethink about the whole criminal law? Imagine a courtroom and the following dialogue between Defender and prosecutor before:

Attorney : According to the results of the investigation it is clear that you have stolen the Mona Lisa! Behind bars with you!

defender :
Not so hasty! My client has indeed confessed his crime. I still apply for acquittal! What do you wonder why at first glance, when you look closely and think about absolutely sincere and keen. For you see, my client was at the moment so not do otherwise, as the "Mona Lisa" to steal. As there is a "free", not hanging in the air will have, was the decision of my clients is an unavoidable product of numerous factors, the different can not be, but all are of equal weight for his decision! The specific electrical currents in his brain at the moment of decision for the theft were the result of his difficult childhood, his desperate financial situation, but even the mere fact of his birth, the birth of his mother and grandmother and millions of other small or large causes. Ultimately, his theft have necessarily caused the Renaissance, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the big bang. All of these events and circumstances linked an uninterrupted chain of causes that has tragically ended up in the slump in the Louvre. But he was nothing for it! The electrical impulses in his brain, although the last link in the chain of causes, but it is a random element picked out by another million. Punish but his mother that she was born, or Leonardo da Vinci, he painted the first picture! The fact that you, Judge, not now stand in its place, you owe only the happy coincidence that this endless chain of causation has not brought you to the crooks in the gutter, but on the tribunal. Do you want to punish my client really just for being in the lottery of the blind causality happens to be unlucky?

Attorney :
But Mr. defenders hesitate, but the time the consequences! First, there is no compelling If the conclusion from being . That man is not free in its decisions, may be a scientific fact. However, the consequences for our sense of justice, our value system, by which happen to be punishment of offenders, once nothing. In our society we have namely the subjective and inter-subjective idea that man is acting as autonomous beings ultimate author of his deeds, and not the extinction of the dinosaurs. This social consensus is like a menu in a restaurant: if there a free and a paid dining there, and the fee-based option, you can not tell the waiter, the cashier, too, you had it is compulsively decided and therefore not want to pay. So happens to be the rules of the game, Mr. defender. And secondly, keep in mind - if we can not punish someone for his guilt, we can also praise anyone for his services! The result of your view would accept a callous world of humanoid machines where you deny the existence of people, and their actions is as good or bad weather would have. Our identity as a human being is at stake here! Shakespeare and Beethoven were just machines? And guess what, your "knowledge" would talk about - the loss would be the result of any responsibility, and each could with the words "I could not help" save the impunity.

defender :
I ask not of outright sanctions freedom for the accused - I argue for a paradigm shift in criminal law. You, Mr. Attorney complain, not even an apple falling from a tree on your head - you are either wary of first place, or take any appropriate measures to ensure that nothing like this was repeated. And we must also deal with people - prevention above all else - or improvement of the offender. Only with the nonsense about "guilt" and "punishment" we should stop. There is increasing evidence so That even serious crime often has a clear biological catalysts - such as genetic defects or serotonin deficiency. We should start as well. And - yes, our mission should be reconsidered as a man - but it's just the lobes, for the children's education and artistic achievements nor acceptable to play your "party game" with the acceptance of personal responsibility, the fun does but at least then, if you a man for years of his life behind bars, lock and pretend that the problem was solved!

The age-old illusion is over, Mr. Prosecutor.

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a model kit for the world

It is in some ways like the ideal of the great romantic love: They are always looking for, but you will not, but at best rough approximations. Often you find yourself starting with what you have, and yet she hangs like a semi-transparent mirage for many generations before us, and we continually seek, for they and the search for it enriches our lives and gives it a hint of a meaning. Many people have gone crazy because of them, committed suicide or were killed. However, it is not a femme fatale, not even a person, it is - the truth.

The urge to understand the world and find out how it works is that people immanent - the earliest age, we crawl around curiously and suck everything in us that makes us understand our environment. The deeper understanding of the world is the evolutionary advantage of us, who are neither particularly fast nor particularly strong, or shipped, has allowed to survive. On the other hand, philosophers early have recognized that we will understand the truth about the world as it is "in reality," never to end.

the one hand, we rely on detection of the things on our feelings. We see not really what "is" an object, but only a construct of our brain because of the sensory stimuli. Let's take for example a red apple, we must be aware that the apple does not really red "is" - we see only red because our brain from the retina to the incoming data on electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength of about 640 nm - 780 nm interpreted as red. The joke is that a red apple is actually anything, not just red - the red wavelengths are indeed the apple just thrown back (and get in our eyes). As the same wavelength is interpreted by a rabbit or a Martian, and whether their concept of "red" corresponds with ours, we do not know - but both are expected in each case a quite different model to build the "truth" about the red apple.

intellectually Also, our knowledge Limits - we humans are simply not smart enough to know "the truth" about the world. Even if, in view of us brought forth by supercomputers or Mars rovers first sounds stupid - the way the world is certainly too complicated for us. Or you can prove to me that we all are not just figures in a giant computer simulation known to our laws of nature, as we know it works? What can we do - and what is the role of science - is to us as in the perception of the red apple to construct a model that fits reality. It does not address, is said, but fit, not contradicts it. A police dog will never understand why he was trained to sniff out drugs in luggage compartments, but it is clear to him - if he does it, there's a treat and some tender loving care by the master. It penetrates the complexity of the world, but he learns to deal with it, so is he good. And in this position, we are ultimately human. The laws of nature, we discover, are nothing more than the law of the dog that there is a drug discovery Chappi a pound.

truth is always subjective, navigating a guide to the world with which we through the maze of being. It does not matter whether someone with a better knowledge (other advanced civilization etc.) has overtaken our model - as long as it works, it is our "truth." A good example is the placebo . If the model in our mind gives us an improvement - it will just be so, then this is our personal truth about the "reality" - even though we have "objectively" just a piece of white sugar eaten in tablet form. In a famous experiment "thought" birds that if they make a certain movement, the machine in her cage donated them food - in fact the machines were their dances matter, but they were tired at the end anyway. Its truth was so different from those of researchers who the weird contortions of the birds laughed, but both views were equal. And therefore, the theory of relativity "objective" might describe a very different way the world than we think - as long as it works, it is our useful placebo, our "truth" that we now do not even know better. But still looking

be constantly on.

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The Meaning of Life

Ah yes, the meaning of life ... There are many paraphrases this seemingly profound question - Where do we come from, where are we going? - Or, to put it to Douglas Adams: "The Question of Life, the Universe and Everything". I as a follower of prose Answers to questions poetic think the question is in this form first, and were ambiguous and, secondly, a touch of megalomania out. Miss

course because "meaning" mostly implies that the something whose meaning we seek, was created by someone in an intention out for anything, so has a purpose. "What is the meaning (and purpose) of a computer?" Is thus a valid question. The "sense of the weather," one looks in vain, however. The weather is just there. It is a natural phenomenon, as we are. No one has been created us or we are, even if it sounds disappointing, the product of a process of random selection Mutations of a complex carbon-based molecule. All the miracles accomplished man so far, the symphonies of Beethoven, the relativity theory, the landing on the Moon, to the words of Carl Sagan, "things that hydrogen atoms do when you give them 15 billion years time .

But where does the question of the meaning of life in general? - Well, for thousands of years it was not questioning taken for granted that we were created but somehow, by one or more gods. Created - oh, then surely for a purpose! Life was filled with a mysterious sense, because such a God is not for nothing that makes the effort. And then suddenly - I give the floor here at Steven Weinberg, who puts it excellently added:

"The people considered themselves characters in a cosmic drama: We were created to have sinned, to be redeemed - a very large remember history. Now we know that we are more like actors standing around with no stage directions on a stage, and that nothing else is left here as a bit of drama to improvise there a little comedy. "

Sigmund Freud had already had a similar epiphany, and developed the theory of the "insults to humanity . After that the first (Copernicus) the humiliation that people suddenly had to realize, not the Earth was the center of the universe, but an insignificant bits of stone somewhere on the outskirts of the Milky Way. The second insult came from Darwin, who made us clear how the man could arise naturally, without divine breath from a common ape-like ancestors. I think, therefore, is the eternal question of the meaning of life: the past, the sense because of the religious influence of course available and easy to find at the pastor / priest / shaman of your trust. Is man but disenchanted as a mere upgrade of the monkey, so it looks (perhaps unconsciously) - For a replacement for the lost throne - and invents a meaning of life, is not there, because there is nobody who can give us this "objective" sense.

What does not prevent us to live the life meaningful, to try to understand the world and to do good. This sense - or rather content - we must give life but even so he is solely in our hands.

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you are me

What happens when you show an infant's tongue? - The chance is high that the child then returned the favor. If you a monkey that sings? - The monkey could agree with (see left). If you watch another accidentally touches a hot stove? - Man pulls a pained expression his hand to the body. And when you see sick people to put their own immune system on alert .

The cause of these feelings and reactions is the same: it is the only recently discovered so-called mirror neurons in our brain. Some describe it as the most important discovery in the Neurophysiology of late. In simple words there are nerve cells in our brain that simulate all the actions, feelings and moods of those around us. Diego Maradona to see us when dribbling towards goal, in our brains is a virtual Copy of the striker created. And we risk not only "a little bit with him," no, we are actually in that moment, Diego Maradona. Let us see how someone else is pricked with a needle, there is a corresponding response in our brains out, so that only the absence of pain we must be calm in order to show no defensive or escape behavior. Simply by watching so inevitably we put ourselves into the other person.

Why bother? - It's simple: because we understand our fellow human beings better. Evolution has provided us with actual brain cells that are responsible for empathy (the neuroscientist VS Ramachandran calls they like to publish also " Dalai Lama neurons "). Man as a social system from the ground up, they need to facilitate the interaction with others. He has the inner lives of others, their intentions, emotions, etc. guess not by logical conclusions from their external behavior, he feels just as if it were his own! Significantly, even in people with autism, people who have problems interacting with others, a weak mirror neuron activity been established. Even doctors' protect themselves "by a reduced sensitivity of the ongoing management of pain of others.

The less direct experience Empathy for another person but is just tied to immediate perception. We see a helpless people on the streets, we have a greater need to help him than when it comes to millions of starving Africans is that we have never seen. clear evolution from a theoretical point of view: We should worry only about the immediate past members of the tribe who were related to us many times, and not to people who do not concern us. Therefore agree in the famous trolley dilemma most respondents, a human sacrifice in an indirect way, by turning the switch, but not directly by pushing down from the bridge. The Dalai Lama neurons, to make his suffering as our own, to prevent it creates a hand.

Asians have traditionally distanced themselves from the idea of the individual. For it is one of the community, the association to which one belongs to, the unit under Miscellaneous. Mirror neurons give them right in a way. When I interact with others, I flipped on their heads and thus become a part of them. The boundaries between the individual and "the others" are resolved to some extent. It is, as long as you come into direct contact with other, never "alone". I'm also a bit of you, and not by deductive conclusions, but quite direct - thanks to the mirror in my brain.

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travel to nothing



Oh, if only it were that simple! Easy to put into the car, time and type losdüsen. 88 miles per hour - whoosh! - We have reached in the distant future - or in a dark past. But as easy as in the science-fiction classic "Back to the Future" time travel is not. Despite the lack of prospects, for example, the stock prices of today in the luggage did yesterday go public, would certainly not lacking. Or repeat the botched dream date with the woman this time and make sure that we not drill all too apparent in the nose. What is the travel time that is in the way? Time but, like space, just another dimension, right?

The brilliant physicist Stephen Hawking has joked times, if time travel were possible, we would have long since overrun by hordes of tourists from the future. But now seriously: One must first differentiate between the travel times in the future and such in the past. First, the simpler: the future. There are actually a relatively clear principle that allows us to look after 3 minutes of our grandchildren. You either climb into a rocket, with the darkest lichtgeschwindikeitsnahen speed through space, or to park the rocket on the edge of a gravity-dripping black hole (hineinzurutschen without, of course). For according to the special and general relativity time passes slower the more the faster you move, or the stronger the gravitational force acting on one. While passing on the earth for your remaining contemporaries a century, shows your own Clock only five minutes. Or even less. The cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev traveled during his 800 days in space in a whole Fünzigstelsekunde the future - but only because we can not produce higher speeds.

looks much more difficult it out when it comes to traveling back in time. There is one small and two large stumbling blocks. The small one is the logic. They argued that if past trips were possible, there would be an irreconcilable paradox:

You could kill his own grandfather,
would that even born never
so would have no one there who could kill the grandfather,
so that born but now would
and would go back in time to kill the grandfather ...

It turns always in a circle, and the universe does not like such contradictions. On this issue there is a surprisingly simple answer - the self-compliance principle . It states that only such course of events are possible, the not contain self-contradictions. When I was thus born, then I can indeed go back in time to kill my grandfather, but I will not make it in some way - either I meet him on or not someone else confused with him (and now know who the mysterious unsolved committed murder, has told the grandfather of the time). And when I travel back in time to find out what you have seen for a mighty unusual flash my neighbors two days ago, then the only explanation for the flash of light that I have caused him to travel through time itself. The causality loop is closed in this way, the world is again consistent.

But the first big stumbling block: how us insignificant patent officer from Bern informed, has each object has its own time (otherwise it would not provide this journey into the future, which relates so well to only one object, possible ). So climb into the time machine to travel so only in the own past - that is, one is younger. The rest of the world, this does not matter, he remains, as it is. To travel into the past "within the meaning of the science-fiction stories, one would have reversed the whole rest of the world put in the time machine (and themselves remain outside), which obviously technically impossible (for more complications resulting from past trips here ).

The biggest problem to travel to the past is this: You can not go into something that does not exist. And time does not exist. Of course, we all have a clock, but time there are not as such. It is a mere construct of our consciousness, a calculating aid, a measure of changes in the world. The physicist Ernst Mach said again: "The time is ... an abstraction to which we go through the change of things", and he is right . , so it is also absurd to ask what it was before the Big Bang - da nothing existed, there was no time, no amount of change or movement of something. "Before the Big Bang" is thus an equally nonsensical sentence like: "North of the North Pole." Since time exists only in perception, one can moreover also measure how fast it goes by a particular sector. Happen in the brain computational processes 100 in 1 second elapses more slowly for this being the time than if the same processes take 10 seconds ("oops, only a short 10 seconds and already enjoys over !..."). Why is the time in old age, with decreasing speed of thought processes demonstrably slower . But if the only time a think of our minds and nothing more, you can not stay in it. One can only slow down the speed or sequence of events (so future trips), but never turn back.

Theoretishe Although physicists speculate about time travel by means of rotating universes or stable worm holes in the curved space-time, but all these are highly controversial and thought-structures, in reality, impossible. We are so caught up in the now. The very fast tomorrow, or "ten-years-later" is. And then the time for us because we think more slowly, too quickly passes. Gather therefore the day!

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I see something I tambien not see

Today there is a little trip into a magical world in which we perceive things visually, without seeing her, and vice versa, can stare directly at something, without realizing it. Where is this world, you ask? - In your head.



First, the horse they know: The fact that people perceive something without it "see" aware for some time is certain. People with a disorder of the visual area in the brain are de facto can blind, but because the eye still works perfectly, guess pretty good, coming from the direction that the light flash. Whether a can unconsciously influence for fractions of a second on a screen faded image a person is in dispute, which has the presidential campaign of George W. Bush in 2000 but not discouraged, in a campaign spot in this way, the Democrats no longer visually perceptible as " Council (rats) to call (shot so).

is much more interesting the last until the years the focus of research shifted property of the people not to see things that are in front of him. Great things. In good light. Without hassle. Welcome to the magic cabinet of visual perception!

It starts with the fact that no one who is staring at himself in the mirror in the eyes, the notice to any other obvious movement of their own eyes. Yes, they are always in motion and never stand still. Man, this tremor the eyes do not notice (try it out:), because the eye can see in the movement itself is nothing, because the image is blurred as in a camera. So there a picture at the end of the movement . And then the eyes are closed, yes. The movement is rationalized away from the visual impression also. It's kind of eerie to know that you do not see anything in the mirror, what everyone else who has your eyes look at it is obvious.

But that was only the prelude, the fugue's coming. The brain is in fact always confronted with a problem: it should be from the flood of signals, which it can filter out the most important and constantly create space for new sensations. And so it is often fatal - the visual perception is ridiculous trifles brought completely confused. One shows a man a picture and immediately afterwards the same photo with a significant change, he acknowledges that most immediately. But not when comes between the images for 100 milliseconds, a bare gray area instead of the photo. Here is an example. I bet you did not notice the difference between the photos. Although he - Indian word of honor! - pretty is striking. The reason: If the first image disappears and the gray spot is, the brain thinks: "Aha, the picture is gone, so I delete the appropriate memory, so a bit of room free will. "And if it reappears in modified form, the brain has forgotten the details of the first image long ago and has nothing to compare.

And if you, dear reader, look at something, you have indeed a field of about . 180 degrees, but believe not know that you are all that is there, really see. As I said, filter the brain, otherwise there is a data deluge. Professor Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois, who has a flair for the absurd showed subjects a video , in which several people threw a ball. Subjects were asked to count the number of throws. suddenly appeared among the players right in the picture a gorilla, pounded his chest and disappeared. 50% of the subjects have not noticed the gorilla. Too busy they were counting. Imagine the times can melt in your mouth: You have something not directly staring and seen.

Daniel Simons, however, had more sense of humor, and went on: In an experiment shown here noticed two thirds of the passers, was that the person with whom they spoke, was replaced in the course of conversation with another. The person they had originally asked for directions, after a brief distraction that did not last longer than a second and suddenly someone was completely different from the passers-by. This other person was dressed differently, had a different voice and was also different in size. Nevertheless, the passers-by the "new" party declared on the way to draw without the slightest suspicion.

So you can actually look directly at something without seeing it - and that just because something more important three inches right or left for the brain with its limited processing capacity ( here is another good example). And if you think you could thus pass a nonsense, then I highly recommend the following card trick-follow - to the end! Meanwhile, I go back to my magic world in which one occasionally sees a gorilla standing in front of you.