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Neurons fire depending on the impulses they get from other neurons. This seems to be 'deterministic'. However, sometimes it might be useful to use random processes instead. Does the human brain have built-in `random number generators' which influence its output?

Comparing this with a computer: when I make an algorithm, the computer will do exactly what it is told. But my computer also has a built-in hardware random number generator. I can use these random numbers for, say, a Monte Carlo simulation. Therefore, the computer is a combination of a `deterministic' machine and random number generators.

Finally, it seems that the only 'true' random number generators are quantum random number generators. However, a hardware number generator such as the one in my laptop is based on a chaotic system. Therefore, a very small change of a very small detail could already give a different result. Now there might be some random quantum process hidden somewhere in my laptop; the very small influence this has is then amplified by the chaotic system. Could this also happen in the brain?

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  • $\begingroup$ You make choices every day, but if we could turn the clock back to before you made some choice that you now regret, if absolutely everything was returned to the exact same state as in that previous moment, if the state of your mind was the same, if once again you knew exactly what you knew then and only what you knew then, would you not make the same choice? IMO, you would. But, suppose it depended on some "random number generator" in your brain that was utterly beyond your knowledge and control. Would that help you to feel better about the universe? It would not do the same for me. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 11:39
  • $\begingroup$ The goal of my question is not to feel better, but to gain knowledge. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 12:38
  • $\begingroup$ Physics is an experimental science. What experiment do you propose to find out? $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 16:36
  • $\begingroup$ Maybo you could use all current knowledge about neurons and make a computer simulation. Or, investigate a neuron from a dead person and see whether the same input always gives the same output. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 30, 2022 at 11:50

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Hyman brain is a non-linear system with many degrees of freedom - so it is certainly not fully deterministic (a non-linear system with as few as three degrees of freedom may potentially exhibit chaotic dynamics.)

As Phil Anderson pointed in somewhat different context: More is different: many neurons are very different from a single neuron (emergence phenomenon.)

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    $\begingroup$ Chaos can be fully deterministic (systems can be completely deterministic and yet still be practically unpredictable). $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 8:51
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    $\begingroup$ @Quillo yes, this is what I am talking about. But I think the OP uses deterministic in a more general sense than in chaos theory. There are may be also other sources of randomness, but discussing them in full would require a different question. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 29, 2022 at 8:53

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