DAVID: Living beings as robots run by information in DNA. Craig Venter reinvents a view of life. 
> 
> http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2012/07/passing-the-baton-of-life---from-s... 
> "All living cells that we know of on this planet are 'DNA software'-driven biological machines comprised of hundreds of thousands of protein robots, coded for by the DNA, that carry out precise functions," said Venter. "We are now using computer software to design new DNA software."
> 
> Far be it from a fence-sitter to present your case for you, David, and perhaps you're just being uncharacteristically coy (or characteristically subtle), but it strikes me that hundreds of thousands of robots carrying out precise - and different - functions suggest a certain degree of intelligence at work. And now we have humans designing new DNA software as if to emphasize the point!-DNA is considered a brilliant information coding system, extremely efficient storage mechanism. A recent study tried a six letter code but four is still best. (Can't find the reference, or I'd post it.

The message is don't over-interpret brain scans:
> 
> http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/the-amygdala-and-fear-are-n... stupid book about brain scans with the proper review:-http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/19/imagine-creativity-jonah-lehrer-review

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/12/08/jonathan-haidt-the-moral-matr...

Maybe in another ten thousand years scientists will have come up with the goods – hold on, David…I haven’t finished yet – a machine that has its own consciousness and will, with ten thousand refinements to the mechanisms already built in our time. This will prove that will, consciousness, emotion etc. do have their source in materials. But it will also prove that conscious minds have experimented over and over again, refining existing machines step by step, discarding those that don’t work, retaining those that do, adapting them, adding new bits….So hey ho, what do we have? Evolution guided by conscious design.

You may just be speculating but you are probably pretty close to the truth, or at least part of it.

What part?

If there really is no mind/body dualism (i.e. no unknown form of energy that is able to control the physical brain), the alternative can only be that within the brain is a physical mechanism that has overall control (will). Maybe in another ten thousand years scientists will have come up with the goods – hold on, David…I haven’t finished yet – a machine that has its own consciousness and will, with ten thousand refinements to the mechanisms already built in our time. This will prove that will, consciousness, emotion etc. do have their source in materials. But it will also prove that conscious minds have experimented over and over again, refining existing machines step by step, discarding those that don’t work, retaining those that do, adapting them, adding new bits….So hey ho, what do we have? Evolution guided by conscious design. Only speculating, folks.

And here is an article that says psychopaths have different brain structure. Remember that a child's conscience is formed by age 12 from parents and other social input, but if a brain is built in such a way that it cannot accept that education, we get a weird personality:

http://the-scientist.com/2011/11/28/psychopathic-pathology/

I know the author touched on this a little, but, is it just me or has the trend in nearly all the sciences bend to try and remove responsibility from the individual?

No, I think it is a societal quirk to try and remove all individual responsibilty and use science in the process. These days no one is responsibile for anything.

"Oh, this person has a psychological condition which prevents them from NOT shoving tons of food into their gullet. Don't blame them for the fact this condition also prevents them from exercising and eating healthy food thus leading to gross obesity. It's not THEIR fault, they have no choice."

"Oh, look, this guy over here never learned to control his emotions because he has hormones."

"But don't we all have hormones in various quantities and balances that are unique to individuals?"

"Don't be absurd, he has a hormone imbalance that determines that he will be angry, happy, or sad in varying degrees that can fluctuate from moment to moment based on internal or external stressors beyond his control."

"Oh, so you mean he has feelings."

*Sigh* "How can you be so heartless! It is OBVIOUS that this person is sick and in need of mind altering drugs. He has no control over his actions."

"Well, what about those kids that ran around shooting up the school?"

"That was an obvious case of how a bi-polar ADHD schiztophrenic neurotic sociopath responds to fictional violence in video games. It wasn't HIS fault."

"What about Bill Clinton?"

"An obvious fixation caused by a mental instability that leads to an uncontrollable urge to fornicate and then cover it up with lies. This was all documented in a study about a fairly common disease called Imascummypolitician. Don't you keep up?"

"What about the mom that killed her kids?"

"Which one? Oh, nm, it doesn't really matter. It wasn't their fault either. They were all genetically predisposed to manic depression and bi-polar schizophrenics to boot. Even more telling is that their actions are all suggestive of a cry for help in their struggle against a loss of identity engendered by the raceis chauvinistic class based system that they struggle against. See? It wasn't their fault that they brutally murdered their kids. They had no choice."

*Sigh*

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/is-neuroscience-the-death-of-free-will/

As interesting as the video is, there are some fatal flaws in the design of the experiment. The first, and possibly most important point is this:

"..a woman stimulated herself inside an fMRI machine."

However she got to orgasm, you are simply seeing the moment of the event, not all the rest you are talking about. The issue is the way the brain pulls in parts of itself at that moment. Recruitment, recruitment with neurons firing and synapses being filtered and monitored. Signals expessed and supressed. It is studies like this that make me believe AI will aways be AI and Brain-I will always be different and never computer attainable.

"..a woman stimulated herself inside an fMRI machine."

The reason that is so critical is because, since the stimulation was 100% self generated in an environment that could hardly be described as stimulating, a lot of the brain activity they are seeing is probably being generated by a mix of memory and fantasy that the woman is using to stimulate herself in addition to whatever physical method she is using.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2011/11/female-orgasm-movie-shows-how-the-brain-...

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-neuronal-filters-broadband-transmission-brain.html