perfidy

In a fascinating breakthrough, scientists have determined that the lowly fruit fly, subject of the predations of generations of high school geneticists, has a tiny sliver of free will. Remarkable!

And proof that at least some in the scientist community are aware of the possible threats of continued research in this area, one said,

Future research delving further into free will could lead to more advanced robots, scientists added. The result, joked neurobiologist Björn Brembs from the Free University Berlin, could be "world robot domination."

Naturally, the reporter assumed that the Brembs was joking. We know different.

Despite the lingering threat of robot domination of our species, this research does poke at some interesting corners of the human condition. Ironically, though, the researchers noted that the behavior that caused them to suppose that the flies’ behavior was less than completely random followed another mathematical pattern, that of Levy’s distribution:

Flies use this procedure to find meals, as do albatrosses, monkeys and deer. Scientists have found similar patterns in the flow of e-mails, letters and money, and in the paintings of Jackson Pollock

Now, there must be some sort of biological process at work to create this activity, and if there is a biological basis, then it is hard to make the argument that free will is at work. The particular results might vary from fly to fly, but the process is determined. Just like a random process will be different each time, but the process is entirely random.

And comparing a fly’s behavior to that of Jackson Pollock is not a particularly strong argument for free will, either.