Comment on “The Free Will Theorem”

Comment on " the Free Will Theorem "

In a recent paper [7], Conway and Kochen claim to have established that theories of the GRW type, i.e., of spontaneous wave function collapse, cannot be made relativistic. On the other hand, relativistic GRW-type theories have already been presented, in my recent paper [16] and by Dowker and Henson [8]. Here, I elucidate why these are not excluded by the arguments of Conway and Kochen. PACS: 03...

The Free Will Theorem

On the basis of three physical axioms, we prove that if the choice of a particular type of spin 1 experiment is not a function of the information accessible to the experimenters, then its outcome is equally not a function of the information accessible to the particles. We show that this result is robust, and deduce that neither hidden variable theories nor mechanisms of the GRW type for wave fu...

On the notion of free will in the Free Will Theorem∗

The (Strong) Free Will Theorem of Conway & Kochen (2009) on the one hand follows from uncontroversial parts of modern physics and elementary mathematical and logical reasoning, but on the other hand seems predicated on an undefined notion of free will (allowing physicists to ‘freely choose’ the settings of their experiments). Although Conway and Kochen informally claim that their theorem suppor...

The Scope of Man's Free Will

What Does the Free Will Theorem Actually Prove?

Conway andKochen have presented a “freewill theorem” [4, 6] which they claim shows that “if indeed we humans have free will, then [so do] elementary particles.” In a more precise fashion, they claim it shows that for certain quantum experiments in which the experimenters can choose between several options, no deterministic or stochastic model can account for the observed outcomes without violat...