Quantum mechanics suggest free will...I disagree?

Question

I was talking with a friend today about free will & determinism, etc.

He is a christian who believe in free will, and i am an atheist who believe there is no free will.

He says quantum mechanics suggest free will, but i disagree.

I am not an expert in quantum mechanics,(i barely know anything about it) all i know is that it is indeterministic, probabilistic, and random.

I think free will is a conscious choice, and i do not think probability and randomness is a "conscious choice". I think all it does is removing the idea of destiny, i dont think it actually suggest free will.

Am i correct? What are your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

The probability for an outcome can be affected by a choice.

This is why probability could be used to support freewill.

If things were deterministic a choice would cause an outcome instead of increasing its probable occurrence.

Man this question inspired some interesting questions of my own though.

Like

"What is a choice?"

"Is it possible to make a choice without being aware of  probable results?"

"How does consciousness determine that a choice can be made?"

Great question!

Answer 2

Interesting questions, seems to be more of a philisophical one than a scientific one.  

I agree, I do not see how quantum mechanics suggest free will. However, I don't understand why you think there is no free will if you do not belive in any sort of diety?  What is in control of all your thoughts and actions if not yourself?

Answer 3

Quantum mechanics suggests that it may be impossible to predict where as particle is and where it will go. There seems to be probabilities to everything. That suggests nondeterminism - there is no destiny.  But that doesn't necessarily give us free will.  It could mean that our actions are random - not in our control. But as you are an aggregate of lots of atoms, not just a few, statistical probabilities may in fact make you predictable, in general.  What's the probability that when i let go of the fragile glass, that it will just hang in the air?  Zero.  It's going to fall.

It isn't clear that a God (if she exists) couldn't predict things.  If God is supernatural, then God is not bound by natural law.  Just because we can't predict things, even in principal, doesn't mean that they aren't predictable by a supernatural being.

And then there's the bit about what free will is.  Free will is the choices you make.  You have at least the illusion of free will.  If you make choices, you are still responsible for your actions.  And it doesn't matter if God can or can't predict your choices.  They're still your choices.

Predestiny was doomed from the start.

Answer 4

If it is all random, then free will may not exist, but it may seem like it does. As if we think we are making up our own mind, but quantum mechanics determines what we decide. That's my take on it

Answer 5

I am more likely to consider it more closely related to chaos theory. We have choices but they are constrained by our environment and experience.  Given the identical choices the response of a high school drop out who joined the army and did 30 years will be different than a PHD college professor who teaches History and has spent his life in academia.

Their choices will probably be different and options they  consider will not coincide.

Answer 6

I'm with Tomz--if we appear to have free will, then that's close enough for me to call it free will--even if our inner mind is governed by the same natural laws as everything else.  Whether or not the applicable natural law is classical or quantum is immaterial to the question.

Answer 7

The Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics suggests that an observer must interact with a quantum system to make an observation or obtain a measurement. This interpretation provides a starting point for an explanation to your question.

In interacting with a quantum system an observer, collapses the wave function of the system and makes and observation of an unrepeatable result. Quantum mechanics only allows the calculation of a probabilistic or expectation value for a result. Thus, the result of an observation is not known until the observer collapses the wave function of the quantum system and obtains an expectation result. Hence, free will is preserved and nothing is determined until an observation of a quantum system has been made.

Arguments such as the above have perplexed philosophers and scientists a like since the emergence of quantum theory during the nineteen-twenties!

Try: -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_...

For more details.