More Free Will

I read back my last post and realised that I barely understood it. Since that’s the case, I thought to myself, how can I expect anybody else to understand it? So, for that reason, I’ve decided to expand on my previous post a little, in the hopes of enlightening (corrupting?) a few more souls.

First, let me reiterate why classical physics suggests that there is no Free Will. Classical physics suggests that every single particle in this universe has a set place, direction and velocity. Many classical physicists argued that, despite Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, this was still the case. Heisenberg’s principle just meant that we could never know everything.

If a particle has a set speed, direction and location then that means that its path is set. At this point it will hit this particle and bounce off in this direction, with that much velocity. This can be extrapolated for each and every particle in the universe.

Since particles are dumb and have no will of their own (I hope we all accept this?) that means that if we knew every particles vectors we would then be able to predict the future. What is more, there could only be one future, since everything was set exactly as it is.

If there is only one possible route that the universe can follow, then there can be no such thing as Free Will. Everything and everywhen, though not preordained (as that would require an intelligence to decide what will happen) is certainly going to follow the path set before it.

Quantum physics, on the other hand, helps refute this. According to quantum physics no particle has a preset location, velocity or direction. On that scale, things don’t work that way. Rather than having one set place, particles instead have a probability – or a likelihood – of being somewhere. This is not just because we don’t have the tools to find out exactly where a particle is, but it’s actually because particles are somehow capable of having a probability of existing simultaneously in multiple locations.

No, you’re not supposed to understand it, nobody does. The world of the very small just doesn’t work in the same way as the world of what we consider normal. This means that our natural intuition just isn’t applicable and, in fact, gets in the way.

When particles have many possible places they can exist (and, in fact, do partially exist) then that makes it possible for two situations that are exactly identical, in all ways, to still have two different outcomes. From there it isn’t such a big leap (though admittedly still a leap) to suppose that we might be able to influence those probabilities and thereby alter the path before us. That, for all intended purposes, is Free Will.