Is our mind deterministic?
At the beginning of the last century, the French mathematician Pierre Laplace concluded that our universe is a strictly deterministic object. That is, knowing the initial state of the system, we can predict any subsequent state of it using a series of calculations.
Knowing the coordinates and velocities of all the objects of the solar system, we are able to predict its state in 10–20–1000 years using Newtonian mechanics. Laplace believed that determinism covers absolutely everything, including the human mind.
In school years, I thought the same, because I did not know anything about quantum mechanics.
The birth of quantum mechanics eliminated the determinism of the universe. There are no ways to measure the position and velocity of a particle, therefore, we can never accurately predict the behavior of systems in which the quantum effect is expressed.
Both our brain and planet Earth consist of elementary particles that obey the principle of uncertainty, but this does not prevent us from predicting the position of the planet in a million years due to the huge number of these particles. We can calculate how the light beam, the microprocessor, the virus RNA will behave.
It is hard to imagine that we may not have free will, but some experiments cast a shadow on belief in freedom of choice. The essence of the experiment is as follows: the subject, looking at the clock, should, when he pleases, move his finger and remember the time when he decided to make a movement. An encephalogram shows the onset of motor activity before a person consciously decides to move his finger. So do we have free will?
Do you think there is a quantum effect in the work of the human brain? Are our actions deterministic or is there an element of uncertainty? If there is uncertainty, how can it manifest itself?
UPD: The above experiment (unfortunately, in English. Later I can post it with the translation):
Knowing the coordinates and velocities of all the objects of the solar system, we are able to predict its state in 10–20–1000 years using Newtonian mechanics. Laplace believed that determinism covers absolutely everything, including the human mind.
In school years, I thought the same, because I did not know anything about quantum mechanics.
The birth of quantum mechanics eliminated the determinism of the universe. There are no ways to measure the position and velocity of a particle, therefore, we can never accurately predict the behavior of systems in which the quantum effect is expressed.
Both our brain and planet Earth consist of elementary particles that obey the principle of uncertainty, but this does not prevent us from predicting the position of the planet in a million years due to the huge number of these particles. We can calculate how the light beam, the microprocessor, the virus RNA will behave.
It is hard to imagine that we may not have free will, but some experiments cast a shadow on belief in freedom of choice. The essence of the experiment is as follows: the subject, looking at the clock, should, when he pleases, move his finger and remember the time when he decided to make a movement. An encephalogram shows the onset of motor activity before a person consciously decides to move his finger. So do we have free will?
Do you think there is a quantum effect in the work of the human brain? Are our actions deterministic or is there an element of uncertainty? If there is uncertainty, how can it manifest itself?
UPD: The above experiment (unfortunately, in English. Later I can post it with the translation):
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/79142/
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