Lisa Feldman Barrett schrijft over vrije wil,
Everyone who’s ever learned a skill, whether it’s driving a car or tying a shoe, knows that things that require effort today become automatic tomorrow with enough practice. They’re automatic because your brain has tuned and pruned itself to make different predictions that launch different actions. As a consequence, you experience yourself and the world around you differently. That is a form of free will, or at least something we can arguably call free will. We can choose what we expose ourselves to. My point here is that you might not be able to change your behavior in the heat of the moment, but there’s a good chance you can change your predictions before the heat of the moment. With practice, you can make some automatic behaviors more likely than others and have more control over your future actions and experiences than you might think. I don’t know about you, but I find this message hopeful, even though, as you might suspect, this extra bit of control comes with some fine print. More control also means more responsibility. If your brain doesn’t merely react to the world but actively predicts the world and even sculpts its own wiring, then who bears responsibility when you behave badly? You do. Now, when I say responsibility, I’m not saying people are to blame for the tragedies in their lives or the hardships they experience as a result. We can’t choose everything that we’re exposed to. I’m also not saying that people with depression, anxiety, or other serious illnesses are to blame for their suffering. I’m saying something else: Sometimes we’re responsible for things not because they’re our fault, but because we’re the only ones who can change them. As the owner of a predicting brain, you have more control over your actions and experiences than you might think and more responsibility than you might want. But if you embrace this responsibility, think about the possibilities. What might your life be like? What kind of person might you become?
extract from Lesson no. 4, ‘Your Brain Predicts (Almost) Everything You Do,’ in Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain, a collection of essays about your brain and human nature, Lisa Feldman Barrett (2020)
[Onze daden veranderen letterlijk ons brein (‘tuning and pruning’ is altijd bezig – ook in onze slaap). Als we iets vaker doen, of laten, gaat het brein anders voorspellen. Het voorspelt op basis van ‘wat we erin stoppen’, ‘waaraan we ons blootstellen’, ‘wat we doen’. Dat maakt ons verantwoordelijk voor toekomstige daden, daar ligt ‘vrije wil’. Hoopvol bericht uit de breinwetenschappen, al voelt het ook alsof voor het eerst een trein op het filmdoek op me afrijdt. Het beangstigt me, ik zet me schrap in mijn stoel. De manier waarop ik leef bepaalt wat ik waarneem en dus ‘wat me overkomt’ – en een ander niet. We leven letterlijk langs elkaar heen in verschillende realiteiten. We hebben ‘meer controle over je toekomstige gedrag en ervaringen dan je zou denken’. Dat maakt ons verantwoordelijk, niet omdat ‘het’ onze schuld is, maar omdat wij de enige zijn die ‘het’ kunnen veranderen. Ik kan de impact van die gedachte niet toelaten. ‘The brain sculpts its own wiring.’ Ik heb mijn eigen Pollock (One: Number 31) in mijn hoofd.]