Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!speaker From: speaker@umcp-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Quantum mechanics and free will... Message-ID: <5719@umcp-cs.UUCP> Date: Mon, 5-Mar-84 18:32:07 EST Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.5719 Posted: Mon Mar 5 18:32:07 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 6-Mar-84 03:58:55 EST Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept. Lines: 37 As part of a discussion of free will, Dave Norris writes: A cannon ball doesn't have the ability to change course, even if it had the free will to do so. According to quantum mechanical findings, a cannon ball can change course. Well, I'm no expert in Quantum Mechanics... but I don't think that you are going to find any non-newtonian behavior anywhere above the sub-atomic level. There is a sense in which automata capable of random behaviour can do more than strictly deterministic automata -- a fact of considerable value to network designers, who use routing programs based on such methods. So, I pose these questions: 1. Can we construct systems which will not work without randomness? Many systems in existance today work without such randomness. Systems that do allow such randomness are by definition, not determinisitic. Remember... even psuedo-randomness is still deterministic. 2. Do such things exist in nature? Digital computers. 3. Does what we call "free will" actually consist of randomness? Some people believe that free will actually occurs below the chemical reations... at the sub-atomic level where the randomness of quantum electrodynamics can do its thing. - Speaker