Review by Choice Review
Do humans have free will? Or, are humans essentially non-player characters whose behaviors are determined by programming? In Free Agents, neuroscientist Mitchell (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland) argues that humans are more than mere machines, and that agency is the defining characteristic that distinguishes all living organisms since "they do things, for reasons" (p. 22). Mitchell rejects the mechanistic, reductionist approach to life through an exploration of how organisms are driven by information, not just chemistry and physics. This book tracks the evolution of agency in 12 chapters covering the origin of life, the creation of nervous systems, the development of decision-making and action-selection systems, and the emergence of conscious cognitive control (i.e., free will). Most chapters include a few figures that illustrate key scientific concepts, but since the book is intended to be accessible for non-specialists it includes findings and thinking from philosophy and scientific fields beyond neuroscience. It concludes with a brief but tantalizing epilogue on artificial intelligence suggesting that for artificial systems to have real agency, they may need to have elements of randomness programmed in at their low-level workings to mimic human indeterminacy. An intriguing premise. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --Carrie Leigh Iwema, independent scholar
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this stimulating treatise, Mitchell (Innate), a genetics professor at Trinity College Dublin, finds evidence for free will in the evolutionary history of humankind. "Agency--the capacity of organisms to act with causal power in the world, for their own reasons--is the defining feature of life itself," he argues, suggesting that meaningful action emerged when unicellular organisms became capable of collecting information about their environment--the detection of food, for instance, would motivate the organism to seek it out. The development of more complex nervous systems and cognitive processing led to more sophisticated ways of interpreting the world, and eventually human consciousness. Drawing on quantum physics, the author contends that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle--which asserts that "the more precisely you measure the position" of a subatomic particle, the "less precise will be your estimate of its momentum," making it difficult to predict a system's future based on its current state--illustrates the deep indeterminacy written into the laws of physics and debunks those who claim that all events and actions are effectively fated to unfold in one way according to those laws. The discussions can get heady, but Mitchell's lucid explanations keep the philosophical musings down-to-earth (he defines "hard determinism" as the idea that "there are no possibilities--only what has happened and what will happen"). It's a provocative entry in an ancient debate. (Oct.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A geneticist and neuroscientist presents a thorough scientific exploration and defense of free will. Mitchell, author of Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are, uses an evolutionary approach to the question of free will in human beings, synthesizing extensive research findings in multiple scientific and philosophical disciplines. The book, he writes, "is not meant to be an exhaustive intellectual history but instead an overview of things as I see them…an extended argument for a way of thinking about the issue of agency." The author opens his appealing narrative with the beginning of life in hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, and he engagingly examines the evolution of living things within the context of evolutionary creativity, positive and negative selection, and signal response in organisms. Mitchell determines that the brain is capable of self-guidance and that free will is an evolved function of biology dependent on neural resources rather than the result of a mystical, intelligent designer. Because the author operates along complex, interdisciplinary planes, readers completely unfamiliar with organic chemistry, biochemistry, and other sciences may need to tread carefully. Yet the dynamic evolutionary processes Mitchell describes and the connections he makes throughout are well worth the effort, and the numerous easy-to-understand illustrations are at once immensely clarifying and edifying. In addition to diving into the hard sciences, Mitchell also discusses the moral, legal, and philosophical ramifications of free will. Human beings, he argues convincingly, must be responsible for their actions. The epilogue about artificial intelligence and its limitations is timely and significant, though the question of whether building an intelligence that approximates agency should be done is left open for now. Mitchell's compelling and absorbing book acts both as a synthesizing primer about evolution and a powerful argument for free will. Its importance and quality are undeniable. A bold, brilliant must-read that should reach a large audience. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
