Do Subatomic Particles Have Free Will?

An anonymous reader sends in a Science News article that begins: "Human free will might seem like the squishiest of philosophical subjects, way beyond the realm of mathematical demonstration. But two highly regarded Princeton mathematicians, John Conway and Simon Kochen, claim to have proven that if humans have even the tiniest amount of free will, then atoms themselves must also behave unpredictably." Standard interpretations of quantum mechanics, of course, embrace unpredictability. But many physicists aren't comfortable with that, and are working to develop deterministic interpretations of quantum mechanics. Conway and Kochen's proof argues that these efforts will be fruitless — unless one is willing to give up human free will, in a very strong sense. The article quotes Conway: "We can really prove that there's no algorithm, no way that the particle can give an answer that is unique and can be specified ahead of time. I'm still amazed that we can actually manage to prove that."

Comments

Science and religions/atheism should not mix

[Eravnrekaree]

I am a little bit concerned, that scientists, due to their philosophical bent, might actually try ignore evidence that does not fit into the atheist viewpoints. If there is an unpredictability and free will, which seems to imply something metaphysical, and this is where the evidence leads, so be it. Science is driven by evidence and if the evidence leads to a metaphysical something or to god, well then we have to follow the evidence and lay aside or religious ideas when it comes to scientific research, whether our religious or philosophy is atheism, christianity, islam or anything else. Science is about evidence rather than about preconceived religous ideas. Religions can be fun and can be a nice inspiration, and it can be fun and beneficial to speculate about metaphysics and life, i dont have any problem with science testing religious ideas, but it is the evidence that shows the outcome.

I think scientists can be of a particular religion as is their own choice, but when it comes to evidence and research what is reality should be told by evidence.