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<DIV>Traditionally, the problem of free will is not a question of whether or not
we have choices, it is the question of whether or not these choices are
caused by prior events. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>David</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
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<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=HowlBloom@aol.com
href="mailto:HowlBloom@aol.com">HowlBloom@aol.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=paleopsych@paleopsych.org
href="mailto:paleopsych@paleopsych.org">paleopsych@paleopsych.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, May 16, 2005 11:19 PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Paleopsych] free wills and
quantum won'ts</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>
<DIV>This is from a dialog Pavel Kurakin and I are having behind the
scenes. I wanted to see what you all thought of it. Howard</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>You know that I'm a quantum skeptic. I believe that our math is
primitive. The best math we've been able to conceive to get a handle on
quantum particles is probabilistic. Which means it's cloudy. It's
filled with multiple choices. But that's the problem of our math, not of
the cosmos. With more precise math I think we could make more precise
predictions.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And with far more flexible math, we could model large-scale things like
bio-molecules, big ones, genomes, proteins and their interactions. With
a really robust and mature math we could model thought and brains. But
that math is many centuries and many perceptual breakthroughs away.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As mathematicians, we are still in the early stone age.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But what I've said above has a kink I've hidden from view. It
implies that there's a math that would model the cosmos in a totally
deterministic way. And life is not deterministic. We DO have free
will. Free will means multiple choices, doesn't it? And multiple
choices are what the Copenhagen School's probabilistic equations are all
about?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>How could the concept of free will be right and the assumptions behind
the equations of Quantum Mechanics be wrong? Good question. Yet
I'm certain that we do have free will. And I'm certain that our current
quantum concepts are based on the primitive metaphors underlying our existing
forms of math. Which means there are other metaphors ahead of us that
will make for a more robust math and that will square free will with
determinism in some radically new way.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Now the question is, what could those new metaphors be?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Howard</DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 PTSIZE="10"
FAMILY="SANSSERIF">----------<BR>Howard Bloom<BR>Author of The Lucifer
Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History and Global
Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the 21st
Century<BR>Visiting Scholar-Graduate Psychology Department, New York
University; Core Faculty Member, The Graduate
Institute<BR>www.howardbloom.net<BR>www.bigbangtango.net<BR>Founder:
International Paleopsychology Project; founding board member: Epic of
Evolution Society; founding board member, The Darwin Project; founder: The Big
Bang Tango Media Lab; member: New York Academy of Sciences, American
Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Society,
Academy of Political Science, Human Behavior and Evolution Society,
International Society for Human Ethology; advisory board member:
Youthactivism.org; executive editor -- New Paradigm book series.<BR>For
information on The International Paleopsychology Project, see:
www.paleopsych.org<BR>for two chapters from <BR>The Lucifer Principle: A
Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History, see
www.howardbloom.net/lucifer<BR>For information on Global Brain: The Evolution
of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century, see
www.howardbloom.net<BR></FONT></DIV></FONT>
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