Quantum randomness and free will

TL;DR

This paper explores how free will might be compatible with quantum mechanics through weak influence on outcomes, suggesting deviations from standard quantum rules that are practically unobservable but could explain consciousness and quantum indeterminism.

Contribution

It proposes a novel model where free will influences quantum outcomes by altering probability distributions, potentially explaining consciousness and quantum indeterminism.

Findings

Free will can weakly influence quantum outcomes without violating physical laws.

Deviations from the Born rule are theoretically possible but practically unobservable.

The difference between human free will and particle behavior explains AI's inability to replicate consciousness.

Abstract

Both deterministic and indeterministic physical laws are incompatible with control by genuine (non-illusory) free will. We propose that an indeterministic dynamics can be $weakly$ compatible with free will (FW), whereby the latter acts by altering the probability distribution over allowed outcomes. In the quantum physical world, such a FW can collapse the wave function, introducing deviations from the Born rule. In principle, this deviation would stand in conflict with both special relativity and (a variant of) the Strong Church-Turing thesis, implying that the brain may be an arena of exotic, non-standard physics. However, in practice, these deviations would not be directly or easily observable, because they occur in sub-neuronal superpositions in the brain, where they would be shrouded in random measurement errors, noise and statistical fluctuations. Our result elucidates the difference between the FW of human observers and that of observed particles in the Free Will Theorem. This difference is a basic reason for why FW (and, in general, consciousness) cannot be recreated by standard artificial intelligence (AI) technology. We propose various neurobiological experiments to test our proposed theory. We speculate that for observers to be aware of a physical theory such as quantum mechanics, FW is necessary and that the theory must therefore not be universal. We suggest that FW may be regarded as a primitive principle in Nature for explaining quantum indeterminism.