Auto-pilot zombies can set free the rest of us, muses philosopher
(NEWSER) - Maybe so many of us love zombie movies because we are, at heart, zombies. That's a view considered by philosopher Alva Noë, who on NPR notes that we seem to be partial to the idea that we aren't really the authors of what we do but function pretty much automatically, driven by a "neural zombie deep within" us. Noë concedes we may be driven by a kind of inner zombie, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. He argues that it's really our own individual expertise, not being brain dead, that drives much of our automatic action, which lets our "real selves" soar. He points to star athletes or accomplished musicians who have become so proficient at what they do that they don't have to consciously think about certain moves. More»
