Free Will? Quantum Mechanics Clarified (Part 1)

Quantum mechanics is not inherently indeterministic, but not even the Copenhagen interpretation suggests that we have free will.

Philosophy of QM:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm/

Non-locality and action at a distance:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-action-distance/#ActDis

Thomas Kuhn:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-kuhn/

Copenhagen interpretation:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-copenhagen/

Instrumentalism:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-progress/#3

Bohmian Mechanics (my favorite interpretation of QM):
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-bohm/

(P.S. No matter what the mentioned-in-video author says, the universe itself is not a creative decision-maker!)

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• philosophy
• elimisteve
• qm
• quantum
• quantummechanics
• freewill

[yamaha893]

people still think we have free will?

[safwan321]

"There are misunderstanding in Quantam mechanics." who the fuck are you. some pothead not knowing shit. And by the way stop dissing brian greene and michio kaku faggot

[thadroberts77]

One thing I might add in defense of Dr. Greene is that although he dumbs down one interpretation for his popular audience, he does mention in a footnote of The Elegant Universe that there are other interpretations and he even goes on to mention that he is drawn to Bohm's interpretation because of its ontological clarity. Your overall point (that drawing conclusions about the world without being clear about the assumptions those conclusions rely on is sloppy) is, however, quite accurate.

[thadroberts77]

Spectacular introduction to the current state of affairs in the world of quantum mechanics. By the negative comments people have left below it is clear you have struck a chord, or rubbed people wrong, which is strange given that you were simply giving a Philosophy of Physics 101 introduction (focused on the topic of quantum mechanics) and not really making any claims that aren't completely verifiable. I think you did an amazing job!!

[acuaman42]

The most basic question is WHO HAS FREE WILL? It is explained in the latest book by Stepehen Hawking, THE GRAND DESIGN, that there is no free will. The book is free on the net.

[JohananRaatz]

@elimisteve: I buy a split view about QM interpretations. I like Bohm for the space-dependent wave-function. It fits nicely into a holographic picture of the universe were all states are entangled by the same wave-function. But when it comes to time, the universe is constantly expanding. So new allowed states for ZPF fluctuations should be coming into existence at every new moment, and adding to the "quantum potential" (or universal wave-function), but the phases of these are not predetermined.

[Scynthescizor]

While this video may start out slow and a bit bold, the points he makes at the end are very fair. He does not need to know quantum physics to make the claims he makes. And the point he is making is that the math of quantum mechanics does not entail some of the claims physicists (pop or otherwise) make.

[ThisOneIsTaken]

...dear god, philosophers talking about science. The single thing actual scientists dread above all others.

[MathDoobler]

1. Are you even qualified to talk about the physics? You say physicists don't know their stuff. Do you even know any quantum mechanics? Personally, I don't think you should have the right to blab about quantum mechanics if the last physics class you took was in high school.

2. I do agree that there's a lot of popular garbage out there, and that people wildly misinterpret QM to explain wacky things like "consciousness" and "God" and "free will."

[tpn365]

You spent the better part of 9 minutes saying absolutely nothing except how wrong everyone is in their interpretation of the math yet you put forward no ideas at all. Sorry to say but anyone can make a video saying everyone is wrong.

[RTRVII]

I think science is all about objective nature of reality, and indeed, quantum mechanics makes this approach rather difficult.

I think interpreting should be limited in science. Especially when that could mean a divergence from the actual truth.

[acr08807]

@safwan321 String theorists don't have a theory, they have the hope that someday they'll find a theory, and it's totally time to cut off their funding and let people with more promising approaches get jobs in theoretical particle physics, but that doesn't mean it's right to call Michio Kaku a faggot.