Acknowledgments: Mohan Yasodharababu, Mouli Ramasamy, Aleksandar Skeparoski, Vidit Agrawal, Vishal Zade, Ralph McBride.
The objective of this article is to create a heuristic argument about how free will could be a subset of superdeterminism. This article derives inspiration from quantum entanglement, non-locality, Schrodinger’s wave function, retrocausality, and hidden-variables theory. The current conjecture is analogical and radical. There is a dichotomy in the physics community regarding free will, superdeterminism, and other theories.
For the current purpose, let us consider free will and superdeterminism. The former approach supports free choice wherein our thoughts and feelings are governed by the underlying psychological and physiological factors in conjunction with a reciprocal, interactive accumulation of information through external stimuli, resulting in the human psyche. The resulting condition of consciousness is the key to a particular decision at any point in time. Inversely, as Dr. Hossenfelder and Dr. Palmer proposed, superdeterminism suggests statistical independence or violation of free choice for solving the measurement problem and non-locality. Also, it was suggested that quantum physics is like a chaotic dynamic system in which underlying deterministic non-linear properties contribute to a linear probability density function. The current article attempts to bridge the gap between these two contrasting theories by considering the following conjectures:
- macrocosmic free will (superdeterminism trajectory that defaults),
- microcosmic free will (liberation free choice), and
- a subset operator that hypersurfaces microcosmic modalities within the macrocosmic free will function.
Let us start with the first ideology of macrocosmic free will. This current moment is a collective result of several chronological events ranging from the putative Big Bang that occurred eons ago, millions of years of Darwinian evolution on Earth, thousands of years of human civilization growth, world wars, and even civil wars! Everything in the cosmos led to this moment, supporting you to read this article. Everything in the cosmos, at this moment, is working with absolute precision. Every moment is special! The will of the cosmos to register cosmic events in this fashion and provide us with different choices at each moment in our lives crystallizes as macrocosmic free will in this article.
We are constantly faced with choices every day. It could be as trivial as thinking about the next dinner or as complicated and extremely important as whether you want to marry the person you love. You could adopt a healthy diet plan and regular exercise if you consider losing weight. Alternatively, you can prefer liposuction. These two options are available for weight loss and a few more but are subject to the constraints of macrocosmic free will. Besides the above weight loss choices, if you fantasize about turning into a Hulk-like superhero, as seen in the Marvel movies, it is practically impossible except that your thoughts may help you produce a bit of dopamine, thereby giving you instant gratification. The very nature of our lives is limited by how many choices are available to us at each moment. Until you make a choice, your options may hang aloof in an imaginary hyperspace with varying degrees of freedom. Depending on your affinity toward a specific chance, its amplitude may take a value in the hyperspace. Still, it constantly and non-linearly could vary with time. This article radicalizes such an imaginary hyperspace as a quasi-linear probability density function with a cesspool of choices interplaying with each other, resulting in an emergent phenomenon related to the decision-making process. Imagine your final decision before reaching its critical point of emergence as a form of superimposition of several quasi-quantum states.
This probability function envelops the pool of your choices when deciding what to do next with your life. When this probability function involutes, an event corresponding to your decision registers in the cosmic timetable. This logic is analogous to the collapse of a wave function to produce a single eigenstate. Each decision may be a conscious decision, such as choosing a weight loss regime, or an unconscious one, such as inadvertently spraining your hand due to pressure from your weight during, say, a deep REM sleep cycle. Despite influences from external stimuli, we have the power to make our own choices within the imaginary hyperspace or probability function presented to us by the macrocosm. This freedom in the microcosm of our human consciousness crystallizes as microcosmic free will.
From the above ideas, microcosmic free will could be a subset of macrocosmic free will. Imagine the universe with hidden variables follows superdeterminism and gives us a limited number of choices for which the response or outcome is already expected or predicted by the cosmos. A predefined set of microcosmic quasi-eigenstates superimposed may collectively constitute the area under the probability density curve. Every moment in our lives may be replete with the constant creation of these probability functions by the macrocosm as per the known laws and hidden variables. This process may result in the evolution of the probability function enveloping different non-linear effects of eigenstates over time.
Once microcosmic free will kicks, eventually, the probability function involutes, causing a reductive decision. In this case, our emotions, thoughts, feelings, jealousy, ego, anger, desire, greed, and happiness could function as receptors/filters/resulting attributes/limbs of our consciousness.
Upon receiving information from external sources, our brain filters it through the prism of these different consciousness entities, resulting in a decision-making process. The implications of such a predefined set of quasi-quantum states in an imaginary hyperspace and our ability to choose a particular decision based on our preconditioned consciousness could further present the following essential questions among many:
- Does our limited micro-freedom in making decisions matter if everything is predefined?
- If everything is predefined, should we accept it, immerse ourselves into the idea of leading an extraordinary life, and become spiritual, thereby worshipping the creator or force behind the creation?
- Is cosmic creation a fate and the creator of the force behind the creation is not even aware that we exist? — This question presents Nihilism overtones.
- Is cosmic creation not luck, but the creator of the force behind creation constantly keeps tabs on our activities and does not interfere because the laws or rules that govern our existence prevail?
Originally published on Medium.com.
References
- Does Quantum Mechanics Rule Out Free Will? (by John Horgan, Opinion, Scientific American)
- Conway, J. and Kochen, S., 2009. The strong free will theorem. Notices of the AMS, 56(2), pp.226–232.
- Hossenfelder, S., 2020. Superdeterminism: a guide for the perplexed. arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.01324.