tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215117687149149963.post153183809300783587..comments2023-10-31T05:06:08.839-07:00Comments on Reality Apologetics: SoapBoxxes, Quantum Plants, and Free WillJonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09594949524027204661noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215117687149149963.post-15027060159096305262008-12-15T11:31:00.000-08:002008-12-15T11:31:00.000-08:00From plants to bees: the trail just seems to be ge...From plants to bees: the trail just seems to be getting hotter..<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://science.box.sk/newsread.php?newsid=6321" REL="nofollow">http://science.box.sk/newsread.php?newsid=6321</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9215117687149149963.post-39491187784266077402008-05-20T10:45:00.000-07:002008-05-20T10:45:00.000-07:00I totally forgot about your blog, and just spent t...I totally forgot about your blog, and just spent the last 30 minutes or so catching up, which was quite enjoyable. Hopefully you’ll keep it going through grad school so those of us unfortunate enough not to be going to (the right type of) grad school can get some much-needed philosophical insight while studying some b.s. like contracts or property law.<BR/><BR/>I also had some thoughts on this post: props for not equating quantum indeterminacy with free will. Way too many people (including some idiotic math professors @ Princeton) seem to think that merely by showing that human actions are governed by quantum mechanics, we can assert that we have free will in the strong sense. But as you rightly point out, the fact that our actions aren't deterministic doesn't mean we have free will--we could just as easily be acting randomly.<BR/> <BR/>And it's for that reason that I'm not sure this scientific discovery about photosynthesis helps the libertarian much. Let's grant for the sake of argument that the same kind of mechanisms that govern how plants photosynthesize govern the way humans act, i.e. that there's some kind of mechanism in our brains which considers all possible quantum states (or whatever the proper term is), and then chooses which quantum state to occupy not because of its energy level, but on some other criteria.<BR/><BR/>I should point out that this is a pretty specific picture that makes some strong claims about human behavior and neuroscience. That isn’t to say it couldn’t end up being right, but I’m not sure at this point we have good reason to think the manner by which plants convert sunlight into usable energy is similar to the way humans make choices about how to act. The libertarian has to show not just that some state of affairs which allows for free will could be true, but that it actually is true. <BR/><BR/>But more importantly, back to assuming that there is some x-factor determines the quantum states of our brains’ particles, and that that factor is related to human action, one of three statements must be true: (i) that x-factor never determines human behavior, which we’ve ruled out by our assumption; (ii) that x-factor always determines the quantum states of our brains’ particles, in which case our actions appear to be determined just as if classical physics is true, leaving no room for free will; or (iii) that x-factor sometimes, but not always, determines the quantum states of our brain particles, in which case there has to be some other mechanism which determines when that x-factor determines the quantum states of our brain particles and when it does not. In other words, there has to be another factor which determines when the x-factor is determinative. Besides the fact that there doesn’t appear to be a plausible candidate for that x’-factor, all we’ve done is pushed the libertarian problem back one iteration.<BR/><BR/>OK, that was much longer than I intended it to be, but it was either that or work, and work is less cool than philosophy.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04020949389765364559noreply@blogger.com