Do quantum effects allow true free will?
Disclaimer: my knowledge of quantum mechanics is very limited, so apologies for the pseudo-philosophical question I'm about to pose without real knowledge of the field.
Recent posts by Metric and yukoncpa sparked this question for me: Are quantum effects necessary for a coscious being to possess true free will? I cannot go into a thorough explanation (see my first paragraph), so I figured I would come to this forum for any input. Consider that if classical physics were true down to the elementary particle level, quantum effects would not exist. It would appear that what allows coscious beings to make choices and thus determine future events is the inherent unpredictability in QM. I would say it all stems from the uncertainty principle but there may be more to it than that.
As an example, suppose Newtonian mechanics was true at all scales of our universe. Now according to Newton we can measure both the position and velocity of a particle precisely, and if this were true down to elementary particles the uncertainty principle would be false. This is the part where I wish I knew more about wavefunctions and the like so my idea would be more clear. But it would seem that if the uncertainty principle were false then all future events could be predicted by experiment, even down to the neuronal processes in our brain. Thus if classical physics were true to the core of our universe, it would be impossible for free will to exist in conscious beings -- predicting what an individual would do would completely simplify down to how the classical physics is playing out in his mind. Do quantum effects, by allowing "uncertainty" in these measurements, indirectly allow free will in the conscious mind?
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03-28-2006, 10:43 AM
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