[ExI] Will Will free Free Will?

Damien Broderick thespike at satx.rr.com
Wed Jan 7 03:28:43 UTC 2009


At 12:26 PM 12/29/2008 -0500, Will Steinberg wrote:

>Damn my name.

Try this for size:

<http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0804/0804.0871v1.pdf>

<..."In the end, however, it is
clear that neither determinism nor randomness is good
for free will. If nature is fundamentally random, then
outcomes of our actions are also completely beyond our
control: randomness is just as bad as determinism"[2].
Here the term 'randomness' refers to 'exclusion of order
and control', and not 'not completely determined by the
past'.

This paper aims to show that quantum physics does
not entail the presumed incompatibility of quantum randomness
with order and control. Section II argues on
the basis of the before-before experiment that quantum
randomness can be controlled by unobservable influences
from outside spacetime and, therefore, is compatible with
freedom in principle: Both quantum randomness and free
will, refer to agency which is not exclusively determined
by the past. Section III answers a number of other objections.
Section IV concludes by stating that one should
look at free will as a primitive principle for explaining
why the laws of Nature are quantum, instead of looking
at the quantum as the model for explaining free will.>

Highly unlikely, but hey.




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