Deterministic minds
Current materialistic views laugh at idealism. Even the most open-minded materialists can do nothing more than agree to disagree with dualists and other idealists, while still holding that there is no evidence that would even make it a possibility for anything to exist beyond our material realm; yet alone affect us from there. Determinism dictates that we are prisoners of a predestined life, all our decisions and ideas already made for us. There is, however, new research that might imply otherwise.
Quantum physics has made people more open-minded about indeterminism, though it is still inconceivable that these new rules of causality could, in any way, affect the universe on a macroscopic scale. Our minds transport data through electrical and chemical signals, which are not affected by the rules of quantum mechanics. It’s impossible for it to work in a indeterministic way! Right?
Let’s consider memory, for a while. We learn and remember huge amounts of data. Granted, our methods of accessing that memory are far from robust, but the brain is still able to hold a lot more information that current computers, and employ that information in ways that computers will never understand. The brain has neurons in the order of trillions, but most of these are not connected to memory. They are not located in the memory centers of the nervous system. But even if all of these neurons were used to store memories, their memory storage capacity would still fall short of what we see every day. If explained through classical mechanics, that is.
There is a new theory, christened The Quantum Brain Theory, that may explain this defect. In quantum mechanics, there can be an infinite number of possible sequences for a finite number of particles. According to the theory, our mind uses quantum states for storing data inside the neurons, in microtubules. Because many of the theories incorporating quantum mechanics inside the brain are based on string theories, and since quantum mechanics is such a difficult field, even by itself, I won’t go into any more detail in this essay. Search Google for “quantum brain theory” and/or “microtubule” for more detailed information.
If this new theory proves to be accurate, how can the human brain be deterministic ?-) I’m not saying this theory is solid proof of our minds being indeterministic. I’m merely pointing out that the discussion is once again open, even if only for all of us to agree to disagree.