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#1 2009-03-25 15:37:45
- MathsIsFun
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- Registered: 2005-01-21
- Posts: 7,713
High-powered mathematicians take on free will
"Working with his longtime colleague, Princeton mathematician Simon Kochen, [John] Conway is set on explaining to the University community and the public over six weeks the tenets of their "Free Will Theorem.""
"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..." - Leon M. Lederman
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#2 2009-03-27 07:06:08
- random_fruit
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- Registered: 2008-12-25
- Posts: 39
Re: High-powered mathematicians take on free will
So, if electrons and other sub-atomics have free-will, does this mean we need Isaac Asimov's notion that a sufficiently large number of unpredictable entities can be predicted accurately, as in the Foundation Series? (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Foundation_Series) Perhaps if we use this notion, can we avoid being considered merely the sum of our atoms.
I wouldn't like that outcome, because I quite like the thought that I have my own free will.
Is this getting close to the stuff that ought to be in Dark Discussions at Cafe Infinity?
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#3 2009-03-27 07:34:51
- Jai Ganesh
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- Registered: 2005-06-28
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Re: High-powered mathematicians take on free will
"And we've found that, from moment to moment, nature doesn't know what it's going to do. A particle has a choice."
Very interesting! Hard to believe, but if John Conway thinks so, it must be right! He wouldn't say something without justification! Thats what I think!
It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.
Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.
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#4 2009-03-27 09:20:22
- Ricky
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- Registered: 2005-12-04
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Re: High-powered mathematicians take on free will
Very interesting! Hard to believe, but if John Conway thinks so, it must be right! He wouldn't say something without justification! Thats what I think!
That is a very dangerous way to think. Or to not think, I suppose.
"In the real world, this would be a problem. But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist. So we'll go ahead and do that now..."
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#5 2009-03-27 20:51:41
- Jai Ganesh
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- Registered: 2005-06-28
- Posts: 48,385
Re: High-powered mathematicians take on free will
On second thought, yes, you're right Ricky. Nobody's infallible!
It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.
Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.
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