Comments on: Where the randomness comes from

By: David

David — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 02:43:24 +0000

The question is how much this randomness translates meaningfully to the phenomena we are interested in, not whether the randomness fundamentally exists (which barring certain interpretations of QM it obviously does). Higher level regularities exist on top of low level randomness. I would be very surprised if we needed to go down to the quantum level to trace the source of whether the door will be opened or not. It seems much more likely that is a something that can be understood in terms of regularities present much higher up.

And to make another point, I would say that a non-deterministic picture of the brain seems to me more at odds with free will than a deterministic one (which incidentally, I dont find incompatible) In the non-deterministic scenario, the individual would be at the mercy of randomness, so his/her will would not be free at all!

By: Zelah

Zelah — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:28:12 +0000

Hi Richard,

Here is a reply to Delta.

Your misunderstanding of ‘free will’ is due in my opinion in your nonstandard interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.

The conventional view of the collaspe of the wavefunction is that is is induced by Decoherence, which relies on some sort of thermodynamical coarse raining. The ‘free will’ comes from the fact that the coarse graining does not have any bases in reality, it is a convenient fiction which Science cannot predict!

I hope this adds to the discussion

Zelah

By: Delta

Delta — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:21:43 +0000

If it were possible to calculate the “wavefunction of the brain” of a particular individual (let’s say our combination of physical understanding, simulation capabilities, and non-invasive measurement of initial conditions allowed for this), and I was able to calculate the probability of that individual doing all possible actions in the future, then it seems to me that there is still no free will. Someone else being able to tell ME what probability there might be for me to do certain things is not enough wiggle room for me to say that I have free will, which to me is such an absurd attack on the notion of causality that I’m surprised it’s often entertained in intellectual circles.