Monday, April 20, 2009

Do particles have free will?



"Everything in the universe has some degree of free will. Even quantum particles. An elemental particle "decides" which way to spin. A cosmic ray decides when to decay. Not consciously, but choose they do. A new paper co-authored by mathematician John Conway, inventor of a cellular automata demonstration known as the Game of Life, argues that you can't explain the spin or decay of particles by randomness, nor are they determined, so free will is the only option left. "

The .pdf of the paper. It is pretty numbers-y though...

I've always had a hunch that free will does exist for particles, but not in the sense as we know free will. I have a belief that the free will is enacted in another dimension which we can not see; we only see the resultant spins, break-ups, and collisions. It gets hard to explain, especially since I only know the basics anyway...

More articles, in readable terms, on the topic:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/35391/title/Math_Trek__Do_subatomic_particles_have_free_will%3F

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2641/subatomic-particles-have-free-will

No comments:

Post a Comment