244 Self and the Phenomenon of Life
b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity “9x6”had the insight of treating them statistically (called statistical mechanics)
as a collection of randomly moving particles, a concept called the kinetic
theory of gases.^10 In this manner the unruly behaviors of the particles
become manageable, and the energy level can be calculated.
11.5 The Brain as a Stochastic Machine
So far, for the sake of simplicity, I have limited my discourse to changes
in the inanimate world. But now I have to turn to the biological world
because, after all, it is here where free will is most relevant. All animals
interact with their environments, made possible by the function of the
brain, which follows physical laws like any other piece of matter. Fur-
ther, the brain is an enormously complex entity, comprising 100 billion
neurons (rivaling the number of stars in our galaxy) and no fewer than
100 trillion synaptic connections. Like Boltzmann’s bag of gas mole-
cules, but even more so, the behavioral outcome of this complex system
is inherently unpredictable. Being a chaotic system, the future events
taking place in the brain are as hard to foresee as the weather conditions
ten days down the road.^11 Besides, the brain can be in a metastable state
where the next step is unpredictable. We see this in a dog under provoca-
tion, oscillating between fear and aggression, leading to either retreat or
attack, or a turkey being chased for dinner, veering randomly left or right.^7
At the human level, decisions made in everyday life frequently involves
metastable dynamics, wavering between opposite tendencies with the
final outcome landing on one side. Therefore, taken as a physical entity,
even mathematically deterministic changes in the brain cannot guarantee
a behavioral outcome that is always predictable to an observer.12,13
However, more importantly for the topic of free will, other than
what is described above, the brain has an additional layer of complexity
not found in any other physical entity, namely, the issue of the mind. The
question is, does mind contribute to the unpredictability of behavior?
Consider the following scenario. I go to lunch every day at noontime.
Knowing this, my friend one day predicts that I will go to lunch at