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Comment by Rounin | Hacker News Reader

As far a I can tell from the article, Conway doesn't prove the existence of free will at all, not even attempt to do so. Instead he explores what the implications of free will would be if it exists.

And despite the claim to the contrary, his definition of "free will" isn't appreciably different from randomness, only he uses the word "randomness" to mean pseudorandomness, so he sticks the term "free will" on true randomness.

An interesting contribution to quantum physics, presumably, but not a proof of free will.

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Can you define precisely what you mean by random in this context?

How about "proceeding, made, or occurring without definite aim, reason, or pattern". From https://www.dictionary.com/browse/random .

On second, thought, though, after looking at the paper at finmin's suggestion, I agree that their definition is distinct from randomness in a meaningful and interesting way.

you have to read the actual paper not the article

From the paper:

1. "It follows that we cannot prove our Free Will assumption – determinism, like solipsism, is logically possible."

So not a proof of free will.

2. "Although we find ourselves unable to give an operational definition of either “free” or “random,” we have managed to distinguish between them in our context, because free behavior can be twinned, while random behavior cannot (a remark that might also interest some philosphers of free will)."

I stand corrected. This IS a meaningful distinction from pure randomness, after all, as entangled particles don't behave randomly with respect to each other. Though I still disagree with the name "free will", as that makes it sound as if there's a conscious will behind it, which the authors make it clear that they don't claim.

I think a better phrase would be self-deterministic, meaning that the action is determined regardless of external influences. However, I will admit, that sounds a lot like free will.

By the way, thanks for the suggestion.

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