Does Quantum Mechanics prove the following...?

Question

a.) Free Will

ARGUMENT:
Observation determines decoherence from multiverses in Hilbert space, causing "Quantum Leaps" through possible outcomes, allowing individuals to live in "chosen" universe(s) at a given time.

b.) Afterlife

ARGUMENT:
Infinite number of multiverses where an individual does NOT die, causing infinite transcendences through universes of immortality, age reversal, enlightenment, etc.

These are the arguments from proponents of New Age craziness, Buddhist babble, and other such bull crap. I just want to know the counter-arguments (though I am interested in the Free Will predicament considering that even respectable people like Penrose are proponents of it).

Answer 1

The field is still new enough that there are lots of 'crazies' around the fringe. Since I live in Tucson, I run into a bunch of the gang from the Center for Consciousness Studies,
http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/
and the general consensus is that all of the claims and counter-claims are pretty equally baseless.

The philosophical questions of 'free will', self-determinism', and even the existence of 'consciousness' as a seperate entity (possibly derived as an 'emergent characteristic' of a sufficiently complex, dynamic system) get kicked around a lot. Last time I ran into Stuart Hameroff he was still convinced that microtubules could somehoe tie into local quantum fields, but he was starting to wonder if that could also happen across a true 'multiverse' (sucha s the one Deutch proposes).

HTH

Doug

Answer 2

Energy can be neither created nor destroyed so in a sense it is possible for there to be multiverses (within a spectrum of 11 dimentions or more, and an infinite number of combinations of those) and for..perhaps...maybe at least one of those to contain a form of eternal sentient life. Though I dare say it would have to be a universe making use of the full spectrum of dimentions as it seems our universe has trouble with things like perpetual motion and all known living organisms experience three stages of being. Growth, Plateau, and Entropy. I theorize that the universe grows infinitely, but it's about as solid as creationsim and the big bang theory. Age reversal I believe is impossible unless there is some non-linear dimention that some being somewhere or other has learned to exploit.

Answer 3

The first argument is physics. The second one is crap, but don't lay it on the Buddhists wholesale. Like all religions, there a fair bit of wisdom and a lot of speculation. Even in yours, whatever it is.

Answer 4

a) Invalid. Quantum mechanics does not apply to macroscopic phenomena such as life.

b) Invalid. Quantum mechanics does not require, nor provide any evidence of, universes other than the observable one.

Answer 5

What are you smoking Smokey, just joking actually this is a really outstanding and wonderful question.

My answer is = All Possibilities are Possible

When I build my first spacial displacement generator, I will prove it, and get back to you.

Answer 6

You're in the wrong area. This is PHYSICS, not
METAPHYSICS.