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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