Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 65 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION stealing it, while another leaves it alone. Implicit in our technique of dealing with the car-thief is the assumption that he could have stopped himself doing it. That, then, is what we mean by free-will. Let us see what the scientists can tell us about it. If you take a cat and gently lift it up, it usually starts purring and generally showing signs of pleasure. But if the cat is lacking a_ cerebral cortex—the outside part of the brain—exactly the same treatment will cause it to spit and growl and arch its back, and stick out its claws and lash its tail. This be- haviour is repeated at the very slightest provocation, whereas if you leave it alone, the cat just sits and stares at the wall. Decorticate dogs will snarl, snap and bite when they are merely touched by the people they know extremely well. This type of animalis rather similar, though exaggeratedly, to the worst type of antisocial human—the Scrooge type, for example, and the violent, persistent criminal. Is it that the power of free % a will lies in the cortex of the brain, and that antisocial people have something wrong. with their cortexes? If we could show that to be true, it would certainly give the lie to the idea of free-will. But the scientists have also discovered that if an “‘inside”’ part of the brain, called the hypothalamus, is electrically excited, the same kind of insensate rage behaviour results from gentle handling. And they find that when the hypothalamus is diseased or ’ destroyed, the animal’s capa- city for rage disappears; it is placid in the extreme and will, so to speak, turn the other cheek to all manner of insults. Is it the case then, that free- will is really a function of the hypothalamus, and that anti- social people have something wrong with this part of their brains? Or, could it be that the hypothalamus is normally under a kind of brake by the cortex, and that the degree of braking action exerted by the cortex determines the type of behaviour? Proof of this would also put free-will on a material basis. v. : ” 4 comicbooks.con —