I like the term "autopilot". When I am driving the same route I've driven numerous times, my mind is aware of the new stimuli ~ positions of the cars around me and the behavior of their drivers ~ but I don't consciously have to think about driving the car or my route. That's the stuff of autopilot. That's efficiency. Our brain does lots of stuff on autopilot that we "think" belongs in the realm of conscious thought. I don't know that I'd call it subconscious either (like the institutional racism you mention), but definitely not conscious in the active sense of the word.
As I have been rather preoccupied this week, I've missed the reaction of the public to which you referred, but in my experience any time science gives the slightest hint that humans are pretty much like other animal life (gasp!), they seem to freak.
It was actually an a few badly-written articles that confused several different variations on the concept of “free will.” There are fewer and fewer science savvy people in mainstream news reporting. The mess over the LHC in CERN creating a black hole and the whole Higgs-Boson “God particle” flap were similar nonsense, fueled by sensationalism and an undereducated public.
It doesn't help that some people pounce on every anomaly like it was the Most Profound Revelation in the History of Humanity. “Neutrinos traveling faster than light!?! That means flying Deloreans and… and… ‘Star Trek!’ Yaaaaah!”
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As I have been rather preoccupied this week, I've missed the reaction of the public to which you referred, but in my experience any time science gives the slightest hint that humans are pretty much like other animal life (gasp!), they seem to freak.
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