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Proof of nonexistence of free will

 
 
Fil Albuquerque
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 12:18 pm
@tomr,
Hi tomr ! I like your style, keep up with the good work...
...and "bon courage" (Good luck) to maintain this dialogue with guigus... Wink
0 Replies
 
guigus
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 12:19 pm
@Fil Albuquerque,
Fil Albuquerque wrote:
As for the mentioned "interference" it not concerns an interaction between superposition's with each other but the wave function effect itself...


Just for people see that I am not a liar when I assert you said that the many worlds would "interfere" with each other (http://able2know.org/topic/138901-24#post-4371270):

Fil Albuquerque wrote:
There are several propositions on Many Worlds, not just one, when it comes to determinism or not there´s a possibility that supports that all States exist simultaneously in superposition only because there are several worlds interfering with each other thus the wave function "effect" being perfectly deterministic in nature even if not knowable due to the said interference...you would still have classical mechanics.


Isn't it amazing the way that forums keep track of everything?
Fil Albuquerque
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 12:19 pm
@guigus,
You haven´t challenge nothing on what I said !!!
People can read and follow the links ! That simple...
guigus
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 12:23 pm
@Fil Albuquerque,
Fil Albuquerque wrote:

You haven´t challenge nothing on what I said !!!
People can read and follow the links ! That simple...


You don't even imagine how simple it is.

By the way, "haven't challenged nothing" is a double negative. Perhaps your Id is trying to say something...
0 Replies
 
Fil Albuquerque
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 12:25 pm
@guigus,
This interference concerns the WAVE FUNCTION ITSELF as an EFFECT not the superposition's interacting between themselves, which was what you suggested I was saying !!!

Again there IS INTERFERENCE between WORLDS when it comes to WAVE ITSELF !

To contextualize those who might at this point feel lost in the nonsense around, this was brought up precisely to say that there are theory´s like this one that defend that possibility´s are actual or REAL and thus, enlightening in a better way that cannot be such thing as "possible impossibility´s" on an Ontological level, but that such is only considerable to convey the very question that the observer poses to himself in he´s epistemic attitude...how many times has this been explained ? all to many !
Enough !
guigus
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 12:31 pm
@Fil Albuquerque,
Fil Albuquerque wrote:

This interference concerns the WAVE FUNCTION ITSELF as an EFFECT not the superposition's between themselves, which was what you suggested I was saying !!!


I'm not suggesting anything: you said that, it is there for anyone to read.

Fil Albuquerque wrote:
Again there IS INTERFERENCE between WORLDS when it comes to WAVE ITSELF !


Oh, now you say that again. So you believe the Wikipedia article is wrong when it says that the many worlds "cannot interact with each other"?

Fil Albuquerque wrote:
To contextualize those who might at this point feel lost in the nonsense around, this was brought up precisely to say that there are theory´s like this one that defend that possibility´s are actual or REAL and that therefore cannot be possible impossibility´s on an Ontological level, but only the very question that the observer poses to himself in he´s epistemic attitude...


And there is also my philosophy according to which possibilities are real but still different from actualities, although it does not challenge your conception in any possible way.
Fil Albuquerque
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 12:54 pm
@guigus,
The same article:

Quote:
In many-worlds, the subjective appearance of wavefunction collapse is explained by the mechanism of quantum decoherence. By decoherence, many-worlds claims to resolve all of the correlation paradoxes of quantum theory, such as the EPR paradox[7][8] and Schrödinger's cat,[1] since every possible outcome of every event defines or exists in its own "history" or "world".


Notice "subjective appearance of the wave function" distinct from "every possible outcome of every event defines or exists in its own "history" or "world"

Exactly what I said just above !
guigus
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 01:09 pm
@Fil Albuquerque,
Fil Albuquerque wrote:

The same article:

Quote:
In many-worlds, the subjective appearance of wavefunction collapse is explained by the mechanism of quantum decoherence. By decoherence, many-worlds claims to resolve all of the correlation paradoxes of quantum theory, such as the EPR paradox[7][8] and Schrödinger's cat,[1] since every possible outcome of every event defines or exists in its own "history" or "world".


Notice "subjective appearance of the wave function" distinct from "every possible outcome of every event defines or exists in its own "history" or "world"

Exactly what I said just above !


The Many-Worlds interpretation gets rid of the dependence on the observer (what the Wikipedia article calls "subjective appearance of wavefunction collapse") in the only possible way: by eliminating the event of wave function collapse entirely. If there is no collapse of the wave function, then there is no longer the need for an observer to make it happen. However, there still is a single outcome in each universe, and we are in just one universe, so for us that event remains non-deterministic. Besides, no one will ever be able to find out if there indeed are these alternate universes, since they cannot interact, so this is of not much practical use.
Fil Albuquerque
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 01:15 pm
@guigus,
That´s why this is just a theoretical model...of course to us we still have no way of preventing a non deterministic perception of the World...

That was my point from the beginning ! Maybe its a problem of perception thus Epistemic, (problem on Knowing) and not an actual state of Reality considering Multiverse is all Actual ! (all possible hypothesis exist )

Yet and to prevent further confusion on what is meant there is no such thing as "possible impossibility´s" with or without parallel worlds.

Possibility´s concern only two things:

1 - what will happen
2 - What will not happen but that is conceptually up to were we can tell conceivable has being possible.
Never an possible impossibility which is a contradiction in terms...given if it is conceptually possible happening or not it will remain possible anyway !!!

A "possible impossibility" in "street currency" imply´s a doubt not a state of existence...

We are not to mix what IS "Ontic" to what refers Epistemic !...
guigus
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 01:23 pm
@Fil Albuquerque,
Fil Albuquerque wrote:

That´s why this is just a theoretical model...of course to us we still have no way of preventing a non deterministic perception of the World...

That was my point from the beginning ! Maybe its a problem of perception thus Epistemic, (problem on Knowing) and not an actual state of Reality considering Multiverse is all Actual ! (all possible hypothesis exist )


This is not just our perception: the only non-deterministic result is the sum of all possible results, hence those results from the perspective of someone aware of all possible worlds. And who is that? There is no such consciousness, which would be the only one for which there would be a deterministic outcome. Besides, such a consciousness would have to be outside of all physical worlds, hence outside the framework of quantum physics itself, which can only describe physical reality. The whole thing boils down to an absolute consciousness that knows it all, which is not exactly an original idea, let alone a valid scientific contribution.

In fact, this -- let us say its name -- God would be the only one capable of holding this whole many-worlds thing together, precisely because the many worlds cannot interact. And we are back to religion!
Fil Albuquerque
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 01:36 pm
@guigus,
Got damn it !!!
Again you are speaking on someone a BEING knowing or not Knowing instead of speaking on WHAT IS or not IS even if we have no way on knowing...

...just throw God out of the Equation its not needed here !

Multiverse if it is a fact, IS a FACT !
guigus
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 01:38 pm
@Fil Albuquerque,
Fil Albuquerque wrote:

Got damn it !!!
Again you are speaking on someone a BEING knowing or not Knowing instead of speaking on WHAT IS or not IS even if we have no way on knowing...

...just throw God out of the Equation its not needed here


If God is not needed in the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum physics, it is just because Hugh Everett himself is already playing God, by knowing something unknowable. If you ask yourself what holds the many worlds together you will see that the only answer is God. That's why this is no scientific theory, but rather an interpretation of a scientific theory, and an utterly religious one.
Fil Albuquerque
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 01:48 pm
@guigus,
Its not just Many Worlds...11 dimension M theory "Brane" theory, also posits the possibility of Multiverse...actually explains Big-Bang as a collision Between Universes...are you up to discredit this one also ?

And what is "GOD" to be ? a sentient "being" ? Why a being (not BEING) ? or even sentient ?
Why not just Multiverse as God ? God should be just everything there is throughout all Time...
guigus
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Oct, 2010 04:37 pm
@Fil Albuquerque,
Fil Albuquerque wrote:

Its not just Many Worlds...11 dimension M theory "Brane" theory, also posits the possibility of Multiverse...actually explains Big-Bang as a collision Between Universes...are you up to discredit this one also ?


I have reasons to believe that there are only the four dimensions we know about -- philosophical reasons. To know them you would need to follow my reasoning, which you have been unable to do so far. Anyways, I do not believe in M theory, if is that what you are asking. And I know of a physicist (a very respected one) that used to work with M theory and he also gave up on it, and is now defending that nature is "imperfect."

Fil Albuquerque wrote:
And what is "GOD" to be ? a sentient "being" ? Why a being (not BEING) ? or even sentient ?
Why not just Multiverse as God ? God should be just everything there is throughout all Time...


The problem with the God of the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum physics is that:

1. It must be a consciousness: a God that knows about all worlds -- the only one to know about that.
2. It must be outside of all those worlds for them to be the object of his/her knowledge, hence outside of quantum physics.

So that God poses the same logical problem of a Creator for those who believe in creation.

Poor Many-Worlds God: can you imagine one being the eternal observer of all outcomes in all possible worlds already knowing what they will be? He would have died of boringness by now.
tomr
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Oct, 2010 06:31 pm
@guigus,
Quote:
The problem with the God of the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum physics is that:

1. It must be a consciousness: a God that knows about all worlds -- the only one to know about that.
2. It must be outside of all those worlds for them to be the object of his/her knowledge, hence outside of quantum physics.

So that God poses the same logical problem of a Creator for those who believe in creation.

Poor Many-Worlds God: can you imagine one being the eternal observer of all outcomes in all possible worlds already knowing what they will be? He would have died of boringness by now.


This many worlds god idea is not far off from what is needed to justify the statistical basis for quantum mechanics. You said earlier that god would be the only one capable of holding many worlds together. Yet a similar problem results from a fundamentally statistical and indeterminate interpretation of quantum mechanics. If you take it that the infinite number of possible particle positions or paths created by the wave function are real possibilities, though they do not yet exist in this universe, where is the information of that infinitude of possible states stored? In the wave attribute of the duality? But do those possible states (paths) of particles also have a dual wave attribute? How can an infinite amount of information of particle paths (also having wave states with more paths, etc...) be justified if not by being outside this universe? Also who or what is sorting through these possibilities and picking the observable particle? Because if I understand the way this works... when we observe something the possible states collapse to one observable one. Yet even the process of observation should be based on these same rules. And the wave function (all possible states) of the photon from the particle to be detected cannot be resolved by the wave function from particles in the retina. How can something that only describes the totality of possibilities pick anything? Something outside this process must pick which one is the reality. And this goes for any interaction between waves/particles in the universe. Who decides which state? Or what is outside the wave function that is actually doing the selecting? I think this sounds like a problem God could solve.

This is why a deterministic view of the world is superior to an indeterministic one. God is not required. But when statistics is the fundamental rule of the universe, something is needed to keep track of and make a judgement on an infinite number of possible states. Something like God. Deterministic laws can produce the same results that are said of statistcal indeterminance but the path is inherent in the particles reaction to other particles. A much cleaner, non-solution free, way for a universe to exist.

guigus
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Oct, 2010 09:43 pm
@tomr,
tomr wrote:

Quote:
The problem with the God of the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum physics is that:

1. It must be a consciousness: a God that knows about all worlds -- the only one to know about that.
2. It must be outside of all those worlds for them to be the object of his/her knowledge, hence outside of quantum physics.

So that God poses the same logical problem of a Creator for those who believe in creation.

Poor Many-Worlds God: can you imagine one being the eternal observer of all outcomes in all possible worlds already knowing what they will be? He would have died of boringness by now.


This many worlds god idea is not far off from what is needed to justify the statistical basis for quantum mechanics. You said earlier that god would be the only one capable of holding many worlds together. Yet a similar problem results from a fundamentally statistical and indeterminate interpretation of quantum mechanics.


The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is a feature of nature itself, so not even God could ever know what we cannot. The Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum physics eliminates (not solves) only the wave-function collapse problem, but nature continues to be fundamentally non-deterministic (uncertain, thanks to the HUP), which simply eliminates the logical possibility of an omniscient God. The fact that the Many-Worlds interpretation requires a God (as it does) is just another clue of its internal inconsistency, since it requires what quantum physics prohibits.

tomr wrote:
If you take it that the infinite number of possible particle positions or paths created by the wave function are real possibilities, though they do not yet exist in this universe, where is the information of that infinitude of possible states stored?


What does not exist in this universe is the particle in which the wave function does not collapse and does collapse in another world: the wave function itself, which represents all probabilities of observing a particle, exists in this world (in the Many-Worlds interpretation or in any other one).

tomr wrote:
In the wave attribute of the duality? But do those possible states (paths) of particles also have a dual wave attribute?


The wave function is not an attribute of the particle: it is the whole set of probabilities of observing that particle anywhere. You are thinking as if the particle actually existed when it is just a possibility: you are confusing possible existence with actual existence, then turning possible existence in an attribute of actual existence, as if the latter preceded the former. It is the other way around: possible existence (the wave function) precedes actual existence (the particle).

tomr wrote:
How can an infinite amount of information of particle paths (also having wave states with more paths, etc...) be justified if not by being outside this universe?


This monstrosity is just the consequence of the inversion in precedence between possibility and actuality.

tomr wrote:
Also who or what is sorting through these possibilities and picking the observable particle?


No one: this is what true randomness is all about. Here is the source of true non-determinism.

tomr wrote:
Because if I understand the way this works... when we observe something the possible states collapse to one observable one. Yet even the process of observation should be based on these same rules. And the wave function (all possible states) of the photon from the particle to be detected cannot be resolved by the wave function from particles in the retina. How can something that only describes the totality of possibilities pick anything?


That's the point: it can't. Nothing can: it is random (have you ever heard that word?). This is just chapter two of your confusion between possibility and actuality: you want possibility to be already actual, when it is not. Since possibility precedes actuality, they must be really different: you must accept the nature of possibility, which is precisely to be not actual, hence the nature of actuality as non-deterministic. This is the essence of non-determinism: the absence of any actuality to act as a determinant.

tomr wrote:
Something outside this process must pick which one is the reality.


Why? Because you feel better that way?

tomr wrote:
And this goes for any interaction between waves/particles in the universe.


Wave functions and particles do not interact, because wave functions do not actually exist. This is something quantum physicists know exceedingly well. Wave functions are not physical objects: only particles are. If wave functions were particles, then there would be no wave/particle duality.

tomr wrote:
Who decides which state? Or what is outside the wave function that is actually doing the selecting? I think this sounds like a problem God could solve.


This is neither a decision nor a choice: it is a random event, and the fact that you don't like it doesn't create the logical necessity for either a decision or a selection.

tomr wrote:
This is why a deterministic view of the world is superior to an indeterministic one.


This what? What is the reason for that alleged superiority? You just asserted it must be that way, but you forgot to mention why.

tomr wrote:
God is not required.


Neither God nor any decision-maker or selector: a random event requires nothing but itself and its possibility.

tomr wrote:
But when statistics is the fundamental rule of the universe, something is needed to keep track of and make a judgement on an infinite number of possible states.


God is only required in the Many-Worlds interpretation, and not because of the multiple possibilities, but because of the multiple outcomes, each one originating a new world. God is the only one who could unify those different worlds, since by definition they do not interact.

tomr wrote:
Something like God.


You mean God or God with another name.

tomr wrote:
Deterministic laws can produce the same results that are said of statistcal indeterminance but the path is inherent in the particles reaction to other particles.


Quantum mechanics is inherently non-deterministic, thanks to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle: the outcome is inherently uncertain -- you don't even know what the outcome is after it happens, since you can only measure half of it.

tomr wrote:
A much cleaner, non-solution free, way for a universe to exist.


Certainly not the universe described by quantum physics.
Fil Albuquerque
 
  1  
Reply Mon 4 Oct, 2010 11:20 pm
@guigus,
Up to the moment, there is in any sense no proof with absolute certainty, that the Nature of the Universe/s, is fundamentally non Deterministic... thus and consequently, curbing your exaggerated enthusiasm would only seam fit and wise. In turn, there seams to be good reason to suspect that our knowledge will in fact always be incomplete, or non fully determined...which is a very, very different statement indeed !

As for Science regarding Quantum Physics, you are a bit stuck in the 90´s...since the leading theory at the present day, M. Theory, Superstring Eleven Dimension Brane Theory, is actually positing the feasibility of actual parallel Universes going on, and branching into several hypothesis and explanations concerning on how they may work or operate in terms of Determined, non Determined Nature...there are ideas going both ways without any bias, precisely how it should be done.
Merry Andrew
 
  2  
Reply Tue 5 Oct, 2010 12:48 am
@Fil Albuquerque,
You're quite right about the recent shift in thinking in quantum physics. But I wonder if even M. Theory or the whole Superstring series of theories represent the most current thinking. (My subscription to Discover magazine expired. Smile)
0 Replies
 
guigus
 
  1  
Reply Tue 5 Oct, 2010 06:46 am
@Fil Albuquerque,
Fil Albuquerque wrote:

Up to the moment, there is in any sense no proof with absolute certainty, that the Nature of the Universe/s, is fundamentally non Deterministic... thus and consequently, curbing your exaggerated enthusiasm would only seam fit and wise. In turn, there seams to be good reason to suspect that our knowledge will in fact always be incomplete, or non fully determined...which is a very, very different statement indeed !


What we have today is plenty of proof (given by scientific experiments) that nature obeys the Heisenberg uncertainty principle -- as if just the Airy experiment weren't enough -- hence that nature is fundamentally non-deterministic, in the sense that it is uncertain: even after the event you cannot know exactly what happened. In fact, saying that whatever happened is inherently inexact would be more appropriate: there is no such thing as a complete knowledge, just because there is no complete object of knowledge, given once and for all. Today physicists do not even regard it as a theory but as a fact, since all available evidence corroborates it.

Fil Albuquerque wrote:
As for Science regarding Quantum Physics, you are a bit stuck in the 90´s...since the leading theory at the present day, M. Theory, Superstring Eleven Dimension Brane Theory, is actually positing the feasibility of actual parallel Universes going on, and branching into several hypothesis and explanations concerning on how they may work or operate in terms of Determined, non Determined Nature...there are ideas going both ways without any bias, precisely how it should be done.


None of these ideas can do away with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, the fundamental uncertainty of nature. Uncertainty is not just in us, it is also in the object of observation, which is the true reason why determinism fails. There is no absolute reality out there: the only absolute reality is both in the object and in the observer, and it is always incomplete, since it is a process.
0 Replies
 
tomr
 
  2  
Reply Tue 5 Oct, 2010 04:43 pm
@guigus,
Quote:
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is a feature of nature itself, so not even God could ever know what we cannot. The Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum physics eliminates (not solves) only the wave-function collapse problem, but nature continues to be fundamentally non-deterministic (uncertain, thanks to the HUP), which simply eliminates the logical possibility of an omniscient God. The fact that the Many-Worlds interpretation requires a God (as it does) is just another clue of its internal inconsistency, since it requires what quantum physics prohibits.


Nobody here has denied the uncertainty principle. It makes complete sense that we should not be able to know the exact position and momentum of particles due to the obvious fact that we see things with light and light moves particles. This uncertainty inherent in nature by no means tells us that particles may not be governed by deterministic laws.

Quote:
The wave function is not an attribute of the particle: it is the whole set of probabilities of observing that particle anywhere. You are thinking as if the particle actually existed when it is just a possibility: you are confusing possible existence with actual existence, then turning possible existence in an attribute of actual existence, as if the latter preceded the former. It is the other way around: possible existence (the wave function) precedes actual existence (the particle).


I was not referring to the wave function as an attribute of the particle when I said:
Quote:
In the wave attribute of the duality? But do those possible states (paths) of particles also have a dual wave attribute?

The meaning was the wave being one half of the description of the duality, the other being the particle. Also I am not thinking of the wave function as describing actualities, I am thinking of it as describing possibilities. Just because something is a possibility does not mean it does not have to contain information. This information must be stored somewhere and so where?

Quote:
This monstrosity is just the consequence of the inversion in precedence between possibility and actuality.


No I have the same understanding as you do about the wave function as representing possibilities. But these possibilities if they are real possibilities must be complete with the total information about the particle path's that might created. This would include those to be created particle path's wave functions, etc....

I said this:
Quote:
Because if I understand the way this works... when we observe something the possible states collapse to one observable one. Yet even the process of observation should be based on these same rules. And the wave function (all possible states) of the photon from the particle to be detected cannot be resolved by the wave function from particles in the retina. How can something that only describes the totality of possibilities pick anything?

And you reply:
Quote:
That's the point: it can't. Nothing can: it is random (have you ever heard that word?). This is just chapter two of your confusion between possibility and actuality: you want possibility to be already actual, when it is not. Since possibility precedes actuality, they must be really different: you must accept the nature of possibility, which is precisely to be not actual, hence the nature of actuality as non-deterministic. This is the essence of non-determinism: the absence of any actuality to act as a determinant.


So when I ask you how we get from infinite possible options to one actuality, all you can tell me is that it is random or that is what true randomness is. What you do not realise is that you have explained nothing. How can one set of possibilities interacting with another set of possibilities produce one observation. You might as well throw your hands up and tell me you do not even know because randomness is not an explanation. I cannot describe a process by which many possibilities is reduced to one based on probabilities without using a function to sort the possibilities out. And neither can you. You cannot define the term randomness in any meaningful way. What is the random process that gets us from the wave function to the particle exactly? How does it get us from many possibilities to one? So how can you tell me that the uncertainty principle or any other experiment proves fundamental randomness when you cannot even define it? We must have functions or a process that picks from possibilities based on probabilities to get one result that can be understood. If we have no meaning for the random process, then we do not understand it and can not possibly use it to explain something else because we do not know what it means in the first place. And so to say that Quantum Mechanics is based fundamentally on randomness is equivalent to saying we do not know what we are basing these statistical descriptions on.

Quote:
Wave functions and particles do not interact, because wave functions do not actually exist. This is something quantum physicists know exceedingly well. Wave functions are not physical objects: only particles are. If wave functions were particles, then there would be no wave/particle duality.


I know what a wave function is and so I know that they do not interact with particles. But I said wave/particle duality and being a determinist I have also studied classical physics where there is a wave aspect of the particle that does not necessarily mean wave function. Wave can refer to the actual wave-like behavior exhibited in the double-slit experiment and in the behavior of particle fields or electromagnetic fields. This is in fact the way the term was used before modern quantum mechanical interpretations ruined physics.

Quote:
This is neither a decision nor a choice: it is a random event, and the fact that you don't like it doesn't create the logical necessity for either a decision or a selection.


Above I describe a logical necessity for a term that we can understand.
 

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