A neuroscientist who scans brains for legal cases explains that free will isn't binary but ranges from 30-40% to 80-90% capacity, measured by neural imaging. Two people drinking alcohol with different brain health make completely different choices. Many damaged brains can be rehabilitated.
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You talk in the book about free will in a way that everyone has free will, they can do what they want, but you actually talk about, no, your brain health affects your free will because if it's hindered, you can't make the same decisions. Just talk about how free will is not as black and white as we would imagine it to be.
So when I first started scanning people, a lot of attorneys heard about my work and they're like, do you think you can help me with this case? And I ended up testifying in a couple of death penalty cases. Growing up, I just sort of thought free will was black or white. You had it or you didn't. And then with all the scans, it's like, oh no, free will's very gray. Some people have 80 or 90% free will, some people it's more like 30 or 40%. And if you give the 80 to 90% free will person a six-pack of Michelob, they get drunk but they don't make really bad decisions. If you give the 30 or 40% person a six-pack of Michelob, they can kill other people. They can make really bad decisions. And is it the sign of an evolved society to kill sick people? It's not. But these murderers that I saw, very damaged brains. And I'm like, I wonder if I can make them better. And so much of the time you can.
