Quantum mechanics is a fascinating and rapidly evolving branch of physics that is enabling some of the most advanced technology we've ever seen such as Google's Willow quantum computing chip (can compute a standard benchmark computation in 5 minutes that would take the world's faster super computer 10 septillion years). However, what I find the most fascinating about it personally is its clash with the commonly accepted Newtonian/classical mechanics that are rooted in determinism.
For context, quantum mechanics deals with studying the universe on a subatomic scale and contains laws that are probabilistic in nature rather than deterministic. You've all probably heard of the Schrödinger's-Cat thought experiment and remember the Young's Double-Slit experiment you learned about in 10th grade. What we concluded? The behaviour of the Universe depends on an observer and the outcome are always probabilistic.
Now Einstein was a D1 hater for this theory and was a true determinist:
"*God doesn’t play dice with the universe.*"
To which Neils Bohr and Heisenberg also famously quoted :
"*Hold my drink.*"
So now we have these two systems of explaining the Universe (we actually relativity theory too but forget that for now). Both for which in my opinion rule out the idea for free will.
Now what is Free Will? There are many definitions of Free Will such as the ability to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or external events. Another definition could simply be: If you had the ability to go back and choose a different option, could you? I believe that both classical and quantum mechanics rule out a possibility for this being true.
In classical mechanics, where everything is determined you have outcomes that are determined by a previous cause. Meaning everything in the Universe is cause and effect. Now you're probably asking yourself: "Well what caused my actions? What caused each of my thoughts?" The theory is that your thoughts and actions could hypothetically be determined had someone was able to obtain all the data surrounding your choice to the most microscopic detail. Your biochemical makeup at that moment, sensory information, previous events, etc may be used to determine how your brain would fire its synapses at that given moment. Now in reality, this is empirically impossible to evaluate due to the extreme sensitivity to initial conditions and perturbations. This is similar to chaos theory which explains how even very simple, deterministic laws can behave unpredictably after long random behaviour (such as the weather). Is the weather random? I wouldn't say so, we just don't have the data. To me, Einstein's theory of General Relativity is a stronger case for determinism, where he proved that the past, present, and future exist all at once, depending on the observer.
Now what does Quantum Mechanics say? Research in Quantum Mechanics shows that the universe on a subatomic scale, is fundamentally random. No, not that we don't have all the data - things are truly, inherently random, with subatomic particles behaving on sheer probability. Newer research is coming out such as with the work by Hameroff and Penrose on “quantum consciousness,” suggesting that microtubles in the neurons of the brain might temporarily maintain superposition states and exhibit quantum properties. It also suggests that measurements of the superposition states in the brain give rise to our consciousness (superposition in simple terms is the idea that an entity in a quantum system can have two states that coexist at a given moment). The Trinity College in Dublin also ran in an experiment that shows promising evidence of our brains exhibiting quantum computation via MRI machines and protons in brain fluid.
If it is true that our brains do exhibit quantum properties, then this could mean that are actions could be partially be truly random. However, this doesn't really solve the problem of Free Will that classical mechanics outlines. In fact, it FURTHER supports the idea that we don't control over our actions as we believe. If there is an element of randomness to our decision-making process, we are not fully free, autonomous agents acting out of our own volition.
Does this mean it's all pointless? That our actions and decisions don't mean anything? Not quite. Free Will is an absolutely necessary concept for a growing, functioning society. Compatibilists believe that people can act freely as long as their actions align with own desires and beliefs, without external constraints. As long as people behave according to what they feel, they are free, no matter the mechanism behind it. For practical purposes, this is perhaps the best understanding of Free Will, which is not undermined by determinism or indeterminism.
My personal beliefs in the lack of Free Will can also be summarized in this quote by the german pessimist Schopenhauer: "Man can do what he wants, but man can't want what he wants."
If you had the choice you could not do it differently because you would not have wanted to do it differently.
In future essays I plan on exploring quantum mechanics a lot more and will touch upon its main principles such as superposition, entanglement, decoherence, tunneling, quantization, and the uncertainty principles which has some great philosophical implications on the nature of the Universe, spirituality, ethics and more. Stay tuned.
On Jan. 10, 2025 Corina Chahal wrote:
Who’s Will and why do we have to free him?