The Things that Nobody Knows: 501 Mysteries of Life, the Universe and Everything by William Hartston

Author:William Hartston [Hartston, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, pdf
ISBN: 9780857897169
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 2011-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

Theologians and philosophers have argued about free will for centuries, but in 2007 scientists reached the conclusion that free will does exist – for fruit flies, at least. The experiment on which this conclusion was based involved a fly glued to a board by its head and with its wings and legs tethered. The tethers were attached to sensitive equipment which could record the strains being applied by the fly to its restraints. The entire apparatus was placed in a draught-free environment so that no external forces were acting on the fly.

The argument was that if the fly was merely a creature that responded automatically to stimuli, the pattern of its tugging should be repetitive or random. Analysis of the tugs of its legs and the flaps of its wings, however, revealed a changing but non-random pattern. In some sense the fly was therefore ‘deciding’ what to do in a way the experimenters said exhibited free will.

The argument about human free will is certain to go on, but it will now be more difficult to say that humans have free will and flies do not.

See also BEES 34–7, BUTTERFLIES 65–6

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