John "Game of Life" Conway: particles have the same kind of free will that people have

Mark Frauenfelder 9:08 am Fri Apr 17, 2009

200904170905

Kevin Kelly linked to a paper "co-authored by mathematician John Conway, inventor of a cellular automata demonstration known as the Game of Life, [who] argues that you can't explain the spin or decay of particles by randomness, nor are they determined, so free will is the only option left."

From the paper (The Strong Free Will Theorem):

Some readers may object to our use of the term "free will" to describe the indeterminism of particle responses. Our provocative ascription of free will to elementary particles is deliberate, since our theorem asserts that if experimenters have a certain freedom, then particles have exactly the same kind of freedom. Indeed, it is natural to suppose that this latter freedom is the ultimate explanation of our own.

Particles Have Free Will

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