“Should we discover that quantum theory is not fundamentally random”
This would be a terrifying revelation on a personal and existential level.
This would be a terrifying revelation on a personal and existential level.
I've encountered a few people that will cite quantum theory when it comes to discussions about questioning if one has free will. I cannot even imagine how quantum theory gives a us true free will and without one's will just being the outcome of the system we reside in.
Now go back to step one and assume that, even on an atomic level, there is no chance, no randomness. Given all of the preconditions, we get this outcome every single time. Then I have to reconsider why is there even the illusion of choice. Why should I even write this comment. It’s crazy.
I think the answer is society conditions us to assume we have choice by how society is structured and how society functions. You writing the comment is just me being an external force upon you and triggering it from all the previous external forces that made you eventually react the way you did. Even if everything isn't random, a lot of what people like to wish for & believe, can in fact come true but it's hard for me to rationalize it. Other than an outside our universe deterministic observer needing to exist.
Personally, fundamental randomness is more disturbing to me because it implies a-causality, i.e. that at the smallest scales things happen for no reason at all and would be unexplainable in principle.
Why is that? I believe the universe is fully deterministic (i.e., no such thing as "true" randomness), yet I also don't think that rules out free will. Free will and determinism aren't necessarily incompatible.
How?
The opposite, non-determinism, means that your decisions aren't fully determined by your own past and experiences, which to me sounds like a greater violation of free will.
Under the standard definitions, they are; if will is strictly determined by other material facts, it is not free. If you adopt unusual definitions for one or the other, they may not be, but then you aren't talking about the same thing other people are when you use the terms.