Saturday, July 30, 2011

Determinism or Free Will?

After struggling through a chapter on quantum physics I thought my brain would explode.  I was wondering why the heck I had to learn about something so tiny that it mostly can't even be measured due to how small it is.  But then at the conclusion of the chapter I realized that understanding this breaks down to two key theories in life...determinism and free will.  I will explain by incorporating Occam's Razor rule that where two or more explanations exist for the same physical phenomenon, we should choose the simplest one...In other words: keep it simple! 
The two philosophical theories that are in contradiction are Newton's Laws of Motion and quantum mechanics.  Newton's Laws explained the principle of knowing the precise values of an object's position and momentum.  In knowing this and the object's interactions with other objects, people could then predict exactly where things will be and how fast they will be moving for all times in the future.  But, with quantum mechanic's Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the location and motion of objects are only probable.  This boils down to the two big debates of our time: Determinism vs. Free Will.
With Newton's theory the world is determined because the physical world is like a giant machine that continues on its predetermined course once it is set in motion. For those that ascribe to this belief the future is set in stone, it is totally predetermined by events that were set in motion along time ago.  On the other hand, there is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle which argues that the universe is not pre-determined due to the fact that the probabilities are not known on an individual encounter.
Einstein thought that the view of quantum mechanics was not known because it was not complete due to the fact that the scientists' just lacked information at that stage.  But, Niels Bohr argued that when it came down to an individual electron it was not determined until the moment the electron actually struck the screen.  He claimed that it was impossible to predict what would happen even if the scientists' had all the available information.
There you have it!  I tried to keep it simple but I still thought you should know that there is purpose in understanding (briefly) quantum physics even if you aren't a scientists.  This is the debate I have been discussing through out my posts with regard to applied social psychology and determinism by nudging.  Social psychologists believe in a determinist world and they are out to figure out people's behavior in order to control it. 

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