NarroNow

NarroNow t1_irnjk7n wrote

Reply to comment by SunnyNickname in Quantum philosophy: 4 ways physics will challenge your reality by ADefiniteDescription

Apologies up front for a wall of text.

Yup. Love the rabbit hole.

So many good sources of info.

Sabine H. explained observation so my brain could grasp it... fascinating stuff.

We humans somehow distinguish ourselves from the universe... but we're all the same stuff.

I wrote this a while back. Help me refine it, if you want. Poke holes as you see fit. All good.

So, to be fair to Dr. Harry V. Cliff, here is the full quote: "Based on the laws of physics, I don't see how there can be free will. To be clear, the universe doesn't appear to be deterministic - quantum mechanics tells us that the future is unknowable - we can only ascribe probabilities to outcomes. But that doesn't mean there's any room for free will. There is no way to decide the outcome of a quantum event, it just happens according to probabilities, so how could you ever make a genuine choice?"

Other thoughts re: free will which are rolling in my head (my glib guesstimations) on the topic, with quantum mechanics floating around in the back of my mind...

I think it is fair to view having free will as a 1 or a 0. You have it, or you don't. There's no in-between. Even if you have only a tiny bit of free will, the switch is flipped and the free will light turns on, albeit possibly burning very dimly. 1 or a 0.

Can we assume that with free will, that there arrives a point where your brain makes a choice?

For example. two cups are placed in front of you, under a veil. One is a color you like (red), and one is a color you hate (yellow). You get to make a choice and pick up the one you prefer when the veil is lifted. So, when the veil is lifted, you see the cups, process which one you like, and reach for the red cup. Free will, right?

But, barring about a thousand other logical reasons/discussions discussed on the web related to free will's why/why not, I like to focus more on a quantum aspect.

Think you and I agree that we, with our free will, have zero control over the probablistic outcomes of subatomic particles. Nothing we can do about it.

Earlier, /u/DoodDoes stated: Quantum particles are the silt, Subatomic particles are the sand, atoms are the pebbles, molecules are the stones, you are the riverbed in which they lie. Quantum mechanics dictate everything about you, because you are made of quantum particles. If something like quantum tunneling or entanglement does impact our consciousness, the impact is either unnoticeable or is incorporated into the intended function of us. Atoms having charges and being effected by waves of all sorts in the electromagnetic spectrum are both things that impact our ability to think and also our proclivity to age. but atoms only do things because subatomic particles do things, and subatomic particles only do things because quantum particles do things. (love it).

We've got roughly 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (7 octillion) atoms in a human body, all doing what they do as a result of quantum interactions, and the interactions can result in ungodly energy state changes (the typical vibrational frequencies range from less than 1013 Hz to approximately 1014 Hz), per second. All of which we have zero control.

The sheer amount of subatomic interactions, atomic vibrations, etc is so fast that if we were to view human activity from a subatomic perspective of time, humans would appear frozen for years.

So, while you may see your snap decision to pick the red cup as free will, changing that 0 to a 1, in that fraction of a second (to you), an incalculable amount of matter interactions has occurred over which you possess zero control.

You are never in control of these interactions. Never.

"you" aren't even you.

the amalgamation of gray matter you call a brain is telling you that you are "you", and it is just a part of everything, doing what it does. quantum particles doing things.

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