Stuart Kauffman (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, February 05, 2015, 00:12 (3369 days ago)

Interviewed on ESP, evolution, Free will, God, and other subjects. A confirmed atheist:-http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2015/02/04/scientific-seeker-stuart-kauffman-on-free-will-god-esp-and-other-mysteries/-"Horgan: Some prominent modern scientists, such as Stephen Hawking and Francis Crick, have suggested that free will is an illusion. Comment?-"Kauffman: NOT a necessary forced conclusion. Free will in our normal sense means that I could have, contrary to fact, decided and done something else, so present moment could have been different. But if quantum measurement is real and indeterminate, measurement creates electron once measured as spin up or as spin down, so present could have been different. On causal closure of classical physics, present could not have been different unless god changes initial or boundary conditions acausally. Nuts. Bohm interpretation of quantum mechanics rules out above, but multiple worlds does not, von Neumann does not, Copenhagen does not, non-locality does not. I can find NO direct evidence for free will, but the quantum enigma requires it and it is possible."