

John Conway & Simon Kochen Discuss The Free Will Of Subatomic Particles - jswinghammer
http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2009/07/15/pages/6596/index.xml

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unignorant
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.

~~~
dustmop
The 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.

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RiderOfGiraffes
See also <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=532003> where there is already
much discussion. Discussion there is now closed because it's four months ago.

