Perhaps the most important criticism of Libet’s work, and the other experiments stimulated by his results, is that the decisions are rapid and trivial. Deciding when to flex your wrist has no moral implications. In contrast, decisions about career choice, marriage, or donating a kidney take place across months or years and have consequences that can last a lifetime.

So the real question is, do people have the ability to make choices that matter? If neuroscience is someday able to rule out this type of conscious free will, it would have an impact on our ideas about moral responsibility, influencing how we reward or punish behavior.