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Wow, that's amusing. When I was younger, this was why I would read all sorts of lightweight books on quantum mechanics. I hated the idea of a mechanistic unive
by unignorant 17y ago
Wow, that's amusing.
When I was younger, this was why I would read all sorts of lightweight books on quantum mechanics. I hated the idea of a mechanistic universe, as it did not seem to allow for the possibility of choice. Quantum mechanics offered a way out in its apparent "randomness" (albeit vaguely and rather strangely).
In fact, not so long ago I was debating with someone, defending the existence of free will along these lines (of course more informally and intuitively, as I am not a physicist). It's nice to see more informed people making the argument.
- TrevorJ 17y agoI thought the same thing! I came to the conclusion a while ago that if free will exists, it must originate from someplace outside of Newtonian physics or our current understanding of chemistry.
- dustmop 17y agoThe common mistake the opposition makes is that the complement of "determinism" is "randomness". In fact, the complement of "determinism" is "non-determinism", of which "randomness" is only one possibility; ostensibly "free-will" is another.
- pmichaud 17y agoYou should keep reading... I don't think you've grokked the subject yet. Read something that has actual math in it.