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  1. Does Free Will Theorem imply that quantum mechanics plays crucial role in our brain’s functioning (consciousness)?

  2. Is opposite statement of Free Will Theorem right: If elementary particles have a certain amount of free will, then so must we?

Because to me elementary particles does have a bit of free will – quantum mechanics guarantees that nobody can predict what one is going to do, say in double slit experiment.

  1. So Penrose was right and origins of our consciousness lie in the laws of quantum mechanics?

  2. Is the only way our free will can come from is that of quantum mechanics?

Qmechanic
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Pavel Chernov
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4 Answers4

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The Free will theorem of Conway and Kochen is simply an unfortunately titled theorem that, just like Bell's theorem, rules out a certain kind of hidden variable theory, i.e. shows that measurement results cannot be ultimately determined (if it is not somehow determined what measurement will be made, that's the "free will" of the experimenters), but are probabilistic in their very nature.

That's all. To assert that the indeterminacy of measurement results is, in some way, equivalent to a notion of "free will" (whose consistent and uncontroversial definition has eluded philosophers for aeons, and is certainly not a well-defined physical term), is a proposition that is not grounded upon any physical principle.

ACuriousMind
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I would bet that consciousness is an emergent property of our neural network and not a quantum mechanical effect. Quantum effects are most probably washed away very quickly by the thermal bath in our brain.

Dar
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I am under the impression that the uncertainty principle is simply an epistemic principle in that our uncertainty is only a function of our inability to make a measurement weak enough to not destroy the prior information we had about the system. This is the reason we have a wave function in the first place. To the free will question, what do you mean when you say free will? Do you mean that the particles have a choice in their evolution? The answer is of course not.

N. Carrara
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Penrose is saying things much more subtle in his book "The Emperor's New Mind". I wouldn't attempt to describe it.

Another view is by Minsky in "Society of Mind". Again, I think he does a far better job of explaining it than I could, though in that video he's talking more about consciousness. Free will is just another one of those descriptions we make of ourselves when we don't really have any idea how the whole thing works.

Mike Dunlavey
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