The Soul of an Octopus

If free will does exist, research suggests it exists across species. "Even the simple animals are not the predicable automatons that they are often portrayed to be," researcher Bjorn Brembs of Berlin Free University said — not even fruit flies. ... Their flights were not random. Instead, they matched a mathematical algorithm for a pattern called the Levy distribution. This search pattern is an effective way to find food, a method also known to be used by albatrosses, monkeys, and deer, and the flies made reasonable, not random, choices, too. Scientists have found similar patterns in human behavior, in the flow of emails, letters and money. ... Flies even display individual variation in the choices they make.