Quantum Randomness and Freewill
The white billiard ball hits the red ball. The red ball hits the green ball. The green ball hits the blue ball which falls in the hole. Such is the stroke of a master pool player. Everything was planned, and money was exchanged. Our intrepid billiard player won the match. Let us consider a thought experiment. What you may ask? A Gedankenexperiment in German or thought experiment is a way to examine a hypothesis or theory to think through its consequences. One of the most famous Gedankenexperiments is Schrodinger’s cat. In this experiment of indeterminism, we consider a random quantum process – such as the decay of a uranium atom – that controls a gun. The gun is in a box aimed at a cat. Because of the indeterminism of the process, we think that while we haven’t opened the box and made our measurement the cat is in a state of being dead and alive at the same time. Which of course is impossible and gives us more insight into quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics and physics is k...