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From: rpw3@fortune.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Quantum mechanics and free will... - (nf)
Message-ID: <2704@fortune.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Mar-84 04:05:51 EST
Article-I.D.: fortune.2704
Posted: Wed Mar  7 04:05:51 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Mar-84 07:49:34 EST
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#R:umcp-cs:-571900:fortune:21900012:000:923
fortune!rpw3    Mar  6 22:19:00 1984

Uhh...

Digital computers are not all that deterministic. Get a local hardware
wizard to explain about Heisenberg Uncertainty and the "metastable
problem" in synchronizers. (Synchronizers are the gadgets that have
to make decisions as to whether something happened or not.) Quantum
effects show up in many places in modern semiconductor logic. MOST
of the time they can be ignored, but...

Given that neurons have to make the same sorts of decisions as computer
synchronizers (whether to fire or not), it seems that we should not
be surprised to discover nondeterminacy in human "consciousness"
(whatever that is!). Heisenberg + decisionmaking => SchroedingerCats

(And I am NOT talking about the "alpha particle" problem. That's still
another hassle.)

Rob Warnock

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