Free Will, Intention, and the Brain | Adina Roskies on the Libert Experiments, and Compatibilism

In this conversation, philosopher and neuroscientist *Adina Roskies* joins me to discuss free will, conscious intention, and what neuroscience really shows about human decision-making. We explore the legacy of the Libet experiments, the meaning and limits of W-time, whether the brain begins preparing actions before conscious awareness, and why that does not straightforwardly imply that free will has been disproved. We also discuss compatibilism, the distinction between actions caused externally and those caused by an agent’s own mental states, and how intention may be a *gradual, multi-stage process* rather than a single moment in time. This discussion centres in part on the paper: What is the intention to move and when does it occur? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763423001689 Topics include: * free will and compatibilism * Benjamin Libet and the readiness potential * conscious intention and W-time * whether decisions begin unconsciously * agency, responsibility, and the neuroscience of action * how to interpret recent research without overclaiming 0:00 Intro 0:54 Pioneering neuroethics 1:32 Thomas Hobbes - what is freedom? 4:31 Defining 'freedom' 9:27 Folk definitions of free will 12:12 Compatibilism: between hard determinism and philosophical libertarianism? 18:16 Why should everyday folk take compatibilism seriously? 20:52 Is indeterminism agency enhancing? 24:34 Can/will AI have free will? 26:36 Current limitations of 'agentic' AI 29:00 What is the intention to move and when does it occur? 30:27 What is the rediness potential? 31:55 W-time and the Libet experiments 40:18 Proponents of the 'no-free-will' idea: Sam Harris and Robert Sapolsky 44:05 Veto - "free won't" - unconscious causes of conscious processes 49:29 Thought experiment - if an AI had complete introspection across all of it's cognition 50:47 What is Harris' and Sapolsky's positive view of free will? 53:26 Mechanistic interpretability - radical or deep interpretability 1:02:38 Free will - moving parts 1:05:30 Are Folk definitions neurally desociable? - urges, wantings, decisions, intentions 1:09:49 Common mistakes that philosophical libertarians make? Robert Kane 1:13:35 Free will at the fulcrum - randomness vs unpredictability, quantum coin tosses etc 1:18:12 Chaotic systems can't be reverse engineered - therefore we can't know the governing systems that produce chaos 1:19:12 Intentions are processes, not punctuated singular events 1:22:19 Unconscious and conscious parts of intentions 1:23:47 Different kinds of intentions (in neuroscience, psychology, philosophy), motor, proximal, distal 1:27:24 Eliminativist poetry - a new research program bridging STEM and humanities 1:28:09 Why does any of this matter? Philosophical appreciation of our place in the universe, law and governance 1:32:13 A primer on criminal law in neuroscience - how to stay on top of effects of our decisions? 1:33:42 Offloading our cognition too much onto AI - enfeeblement 1:39:12 More moral than us - Should/Could we make AI to be more ethical than humans? 1:47:30 Dealing with bad actors with bad desires - insatiable power seeking behaviour 1:52:49 Daniel Dennit - Free will worth having 1:55:16 Future projects - A book on free will! #FreeWill #AdinaRoskies #Neuroscience #Compatibilism #Libet #Philosophy #Consciousness #ethics If you enjoy serious discussions on philosophy, neuroscience, AI, ethics, and the future, subscribe to *Science, Technology & the Future*. Many thanks for tuning in! Please support SciFuture by subscribing and sharing! Buy me a coffee? https://buymeacoffee.com/tech101z Have any ideas about people to interview? Want to be notified about future events? Any comments about the STF series? Please fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mr9PIfq2ZYlQsXRIn5BcLH2onbiSI7g79mOH_AFCdIk/ Kind regards, Adam Ford - Science, Technology & the Future - #SciFuture - http://scifuture.org