Human beings are fascinating creatures and one of the oldest philosophical debates is over whether people truly have free will or not. For millennia, scientists have debated over whether free will is simply an illusion of the mind and is a concept that doesn’t even exist, or, if our species naturally possess it. Some experts, such as the philosopher Bernardo Kastrup, argue that we do have free will. He defined it as existing “if our choices are determined by that which we experientially identify with”. Kastrup claimed that his “tastes and preferences” are “consciously felt by” him, thus the choices he makes are “determined by these felt tastes and preferences”. Essentially, Kastrup argues, we are able to choose what action to perform and this gives humans a level of free will. On the other hand, neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky from Stanford University believes humans don’t have any free will, after studying the subject for “decades”. In his book Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, Sapolsky argues that almost all of our behaviour as humans is beyond our own conscious control. He argued: “The world is really screwed up and made much, much more unfair by the fact that we reward people and punish people for things they have no control over. “We’ve got no free will. Stop attributing stuff to us that isn’t there.” Sapolsky believes that behaviour that we believe originates from free will is actually related to your environment, body, upbringing and genes. Speaking on the CultureLab podcast by New Scientist, Sapolsky explained: “In terms of my orientation, my basic approach is you look at a behaviour and someone has just done something that’s wonderful or awful or ambiguously in-between or in the eyes of the beholder, but some behaviour has happened, and you ask, 'Why did that occur?' and you’re asking a whole hierarchy of questions.” He continued explaining that the prompts to our behaviour could include, “which neurons did what, 10 milliseconds before” and may even originate from “this morning’s hormone levels” and the impact this has on your sensitivity levels in the brain. Additionally, behaviour, he argues can determined by prior trauma and even go back to the “childhood and foetal environment” and our individual genes. To summarise, he argued: “If you’re talking about genes, by definition, genes and behaviour, by definition, you’re talking about evolution and you’re talking about neurobiology and genetic variance and neuronal function. “If you’re talking about, you know, early trauma in life, you’re talking about epigenetics and you’re talking about adult propensity. “So, they’re all one continuous seam of influences, and when you look at it that way, there’s not a damn crack anywhere in there to shoehorn in a notion of free will.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Alexia Ocasio-Cortez has threatened to quit Twitter after Elon Musk promoted a “sick” account impersonating the star Democratic politician. The New York congresswoman said that she was “assessing” what to do after the billionaire interacted with the fake account on his social media platform. “FYI there’s a fake account on here impersonating me and going viral. The Twitter CEO has engaged it, boosting visibility,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Tuesday. “It is releasing false policy statements and gaining spread. I am assessing with my team how to move forward. In the meantime, be careful of what you see.”

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DENVER & TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2023--

Regulators have revealed when they expect to approve a launch license to SpaceX for the next major flight test of its Starship rocket. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) commercial space division said a mishap investigation from the last test in April had been concluded and a license would likely be granted “somewhere in mid to late October”, assuming SpaceX make the necessary changes. Starship is the biggest rocket ever built, measuring 394 feet (120 metres) and capable of producing 5,000 metric tons of thrust, however it is yet to make it to orbit. An attempt on 20 April, 2023, saw it blow up just over three minutes into a 90 minute flight. The debris that came down in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as from the destroyed launchpad in Texas, became the subject of an FAA investigation. The federal agency said SpaceX would need to take 63 corrective actions before another launch license is approved. Kevin Coleman, the FAA’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, told SpaceNews this week that 27 of the 63 corrective actions are related to public safety. “So one thing that we’ll need to see before the next operation is evidence that shows that the company has closed out the corrective actions that are specifically tied to public safety,” he said. “We’re on a pretty good schedule. It probably set us somewhere in mid to late October for conclusion of the safety review.” A separate environmental review from the US Fish and Wildlife Service is also required in order to comply with the Endangered Species Act, though Mr Coleman said he hoped it would be wrapped up by the time the safety review is complete. Earlier this month, SpaceX boss Elon Musk said Starship is “ready to launch” after it was pictured on the launchpad of the firm’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The tech billionaire plans to build hundreds of the rockets in order to establish a permanent human colony on Mars before 2050. SpaceX has already secured a multi-billion dollar contract with Nasa to develop the craft for use in the US space agency’s Artemis programme, which aims to return humans to the surface of the Moon this decade. Read More ‘It’s becoming like an airport’: How SpaceX normalised rocket launches Elon Musk makes prediction for imminent Starship launch SpaceX launch of Starship rocket on hold amid ‘mishap investigation’ India’s solar mission completes key manoeuvre, slingshots towards Sun

HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 27, 2023--

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