Action as the common measure of randomness and free will

Vasil Penchev

Bulgarian Academy of Science: Institute for the Study of Societies and Knowledge(Institute for Philosophical Research): vasildinev@gmail.com

January 28, 2016, 10:20 – 11:00, Institute of Philosophy (Zagreb, Ulica grada Vukovara 54, on 5th floor)Conference “Agency, Causality, and Free Will”, Zagreb, Croatia, January 25-28, 2016

Foundation

• One needs a common measure of randomness and free well:

• Both cause results, which are comparable• Given any fact without being known its origin, the

question whether its origin is natural (i.e. random, occasional) or freewill action (intentional, constructive) arises

• The result in both cases is one and the same as well as action and even the physical quantity of action

• However the natural process being just random would require much more time in comparison with any intentional action for one and the same result

Given any fact

A scheme:

Always some actionhas caused it

An intentional action of one’s free will

A random action of nature

An automatic actionof natural law

Action is the common measure of the tree:free will – randomness – necessity

action action

action

Action

The concept of effective energy

• Further, one can determine the quantity of “effective energy” as efficiency necessary for a given result to be obtained for some certain period of time

• All natural processes will have much, much less “effective energy” than any intentional one

• That approach allows of a quantity, the effective energy in question, to be associated with any causal process just as a measure of its capability to cause (e.g. a certain effect established as a standard for causality to be measurable)

Ranging in efficiency

Automaticnatural

laws

100%≈0%

Humanintentional

actions

Increasing efficiency

Naturalrandomaction

“Effective energy”≝ Useful action

Entire period of action

The quantity of effective energyas common measure of efficiency

The continuum of both determinism and indeterminism

• In particular, the so-called deterministic and indeterministic processes will be comparable in effective energy or efficiency

• Thus a continuum according to efficiency as the degree of causality will extend between the two poles only qualitative until now, those of determinism and indeterminism

• The traditional opposition of human free will and the alleged determinism of nature turns out to be irrelevant

Ranging in efficiency

Automaticnatural

laws

100%≈0%

Humanintentional

actions

Increasing efficiency

Naturalrandomaction

0%100%

The pole ofdeterminism

Nature

Continuum ofindeterminism

Free will(humans)Transforming the axis

of efficiency intothe circle of efficiency

The increasingefficiency

0%100%

The pole ofdeterminism

Nature

Continuum ofindeterminism

Free will(humans)

The increasingefficiency

Transforming into the classical confrontationof nature and humans (free will)

The pole ofdeterminism

Nature

The pole ofindeterminism

Free will

The “free will theorems” in quantum mechanics

• In fact at least one exact and experimental science such as quantum mechanics doubts that opposition

• It deduces “free will theorems” (Conway, Kochen 2005; 2008) from its mathematical and experimental ground:

• “... if indeed there exist any experimenters with a modicum of free will, then elementary particles must have their own share of this valuable commodity” (Conway, Kochen 2006: 1441)

Eureka!ExperimenterElectron:

If......then

What to do???

The sense of the free will theorems:

If the experimenter may choose,

then the electron may choose, too

Continuum of free will

I have free will! I should have free will!!!

If......then

... and in comparison to the classical opposition:

I have free will,but you have not!

OK, but if I have not,you have not, too!

“I find the idea quite intolerable that an electron exposed to radiation should choose of its own free will, not only its moment to jump off, but also its direction. In that case, I would rather be a cobbler, or even an employee in a gaming-house, than aphysicist.”

Albert Einstein1

1 Einstein, A., M. Born (1969) Albert Einstein Max Born Brief-wechsel 1916 ‒ 1955 (kommentiert von Max Born). München: Nymphenburger, p. 118 (Brief № 48/29.04.1924): cited according to the English translation: The Born – Einstein Letters (transl. I. Born). London, etc.: Macmilan, 1971, p. 82.

An outdated opposition and its overcoming nowadays

• Many other scientific areas such as neuroscience, computer science, theory of artificial intellect, theory of information, etc. see a series of benefits to follow the way of quantum mechanics:

• The single binary opposition of free will and determinism seems to be rather outdated and should be at least complemented by a smooth transition between them needing a common measure such as action

• Even more, the quantities of physical action and information (or entropy) turn out to be equitable

From the classical free will opposition:

I have free will,but you have not!

OK, but if I have not,you have not, too!

To mind-body dualism

I have free will,but you have not!

MindOK, but if I have not,you have not, too!

Brain

Both mind-body and free will problems need both continuum and leap between their poles

“Dualism” by Vadim Dozmorov:http://vadim.crevado.com/illustrations/1212264

The quantity of information measured in units of mind-body problem

Their unit(y)

MindBrain

10

Their unit(y)

(as an empty cell)That is a bit of

information

A unit(y) of bothcontinuity anddiscreteness

A unit(y) of elementary choice

(between two equally probable

alternatives)

A qubit A bit?⇔

Back to the concept and quantity of action• A few (and even maybe equivalent) ways to be

defined “effective energy” unifying determinism and indeterminism, and even free will:

• Physical as the action useful for some purpose per the entire time necessary for that purpose to be realized

• Information(al) as the quantum information useful for some purpose per all information necessary for that purpose to be realized

The starting point: the unity of nature and free will, and thatof random natural action and natural laws, too: That unity

generates the idea for action as their common measure

Furthermore: the concept of effective energy assiststhe action as the common measure as above to be formulated

Still furthermore: The free will theorems imply a continuumof free will. It being between nature and experimenters can be

reformulated not worse in terms of mind-body problemThen: The quantum viewpoint to both continuous and discontinuous (quantum) allows the free will and mind-bodyproblems to be both described by means of information (bits)and quantum information (qubits)

At last: Effective energy turns out to be formulable in two independent ways (by the quantities of physical action or

information) therefore hinting their equivalence

References:

Einstein, A., M. Born (1969) Albert Einstein Max Born Briefwechsel 1916 ‒ 1955 (kommentiert von Max Born). München: Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung.Conway, J., Kochen, S. (2006) "The Free Will Theorem," Foundations of Physics 36(10): 1441–1473. Conway, J., Kochen, S. (2009) “The Strong Free Will Theorem,” Notices of the AMS 56(2): 226-232.

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