Does quantum mechanics answer the question of free will and human responsibility?

Answer 1

Quantum Mechanics proves that the idea of absolute determinism is flawed. Thus future events cannot be predicted and so there is an element of freedom._______Quantum Mechanics and DeterminismQuantum Mechanics is a science, and it is not the function of science to answer for questions in philosophy and religion, such as the existence of free will and human choice. The sole function of science is to describe the universe via its phenomena and try to find as few basic things-principles- to explain as wide a variety of phenomena as possible. While philosophers and religious thinkers may see something relevant for their fields in this process or our discoveries, science, with the possible exception of the Social Sciences, does not concern itself with human debate dealing with questions that often can be argued both ways. For the essence of a scientific theory is that it can be falsified, whereas it is probably downright impossible to talk of this property for religious or philososphical arguments.

However, there is a minority interpretation of quantum mechanics called Super Determinism, which holds that everything in the universe runs a precisely structured course that have been decided in some way since the Big Bang, and that everything in the past and future had and has only one precise predetermined course in which it is meaningless to speak of choice (for the process of the choice is part of the precise course too), and which need not have been predetermined by intelligence eitheri. It was proposed as a solution to circumvent the problem of measurement, so dire for the mainstream interpretation of quantum mechanics, the Copenhagen interpretation. For if everything is predetermined, there is no real wave function to collapse, so no time or place in which it collapses! However, the theory faces problems of its own, namely its hidden suggestion that an object can simultaneously can possess a precise possession and velocity, as well as some other properties, all of which were denied by an object's description in wave mechanics. Besides, even the object did really have these properties, since they are undetectable(uncertainty Principle), it would be very hard to validate the theory itself!

Even this theory, I feel, were it to succeed, would do very little in the way of describing human freedom. For how would we know if everything is predetermined, unless we know the course of everything through spacetime, past and future, in the universe? But we can't do that, we are not the Miltonic God or Laplacian devil. We just can't jump out of the system like in films. Human freedom also comes with something subtler- not merely being free to make decisions but to feel that you are free to do so at the same time. The mere fact that choices are predetermined will not fully account for this situation, and were we really to have no free-will it is in my opinion that it would be impossible for us to realise it is so with this neurological condition. Besides, where's the harm in determined choices, if you get the sensation of making them freely and so does everyone else (so no huma Matrix basically...)

From a Buddhist Perspective:

A creator/agent having the ability to have a design or predestination for the infinite universe is the anti-thesis of Buddhism. The aim of Buddhism is to attain enlightenment/nirvana - an aim to liberate oneself or progress for the better of yourself and humanity. The entire concept of karma would be undermined thus preventing an attainment of liberation suggesting free will is simply an illusion. Furthermore the principles of quantum mechanics states uncertainty or unpredictability of the movement of a particle in any given situation, nonetheless not even the most complicated mathematical equation can lead to the predictablility leaving the observer with nothing more than "probability" of the movement of a particle. If science can't even determine the movement of an atom how can they even determine the causation of the entire universe?!

Let's think outside the box. Einstien didn't like uncertainty if he was right then every thing would be perdetermined. The effect on mass from quantum mechanics is defined by Richard Feynman's Quantum paths. There is a long time for the paths to realign before the universe collapses. Make your own conclusion.