The Free Will Theorem
by Princeton University
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Description
This lecture series, which John Conway has prepared in collaboration with colleague Simon Kochen, concerns the "Free Will Theorem," the topic of the mathematicians' recent paper. The theorem suggests that if humans have free will, then elementary particles must possess it as well. The lectures, which are for a general audience, will explain the theorem and the relevant science, and will provide information on its consequences.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VideoLecture 6 - The Theorem"s Implications for Science and Philosophy - April 27, 2009 | Consistency proofs and truth. Godel and truth. Determinism in philosophy and science departments. Scientific experiments and free will. Surprise and logic. The incompleteness of quantum mechanics. Incomplete theories. The composition of human free will. Ineluctable concepts. Evidence for determinism? Physics, Teddy Roosevelt, time, and free will. Time reversibility. | 4/26/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 2 | VideoLecture 5 - Proof of the Free Will Theorem - April 20, 2009 | Old news to physicists. Descartes and Leibniz disproved. The Janus universe. Left/right symmetry. Satisfying Curie. Hidden variable theories. Random vs. non-deterministic; backgammon. Random vs. free. Moral responsibility. The state of a particle and collapse. Reduction and the conscious mind. Beyond quantum mechanics. The second time around -- again. | 4/19/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 3 | VideoLecture 4 - Quantum Mechanics and the Paradoxes of Entanglement - April 13, 2009 | Frightening people off. The story so far; restating the theorem. Sending your friend and his particle to Mars. The meaning of “free.” Entanglement review: Why twinned particles can’t communicate instantaneously. The proof: disproving the contrary. Strictly locating the free decision: The universe did it! | 4/12/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 4 | VideoLecture 3 - The Paradoxes of Relativity - April 6, 2009 | Review of SPIN and TWIN, which can be operationally demonstrated, and FIN, which can’t. Why the speed of light is independent of the observer. The way time really works. Perceived sequences of events. Experimental ways of implying FIN. Why you can’t go back, kill your own ancestor, and change the time line. | 4/5/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 5 | VideoLecture 2 - The Paradox of Kochen and Specker - March 30, 2009 | Measuring a particle’s spin: It tells you. The SPIN axiom, 101 property, and M.C. Escher. Demonstrating the paradox, clarifying Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, disproving Leibniz’s Sufficient Reason. The EPR effect and the TWIN axiom. The FIN axiom and why you need large distances to experimentally test the Free Will Theorem. Why the chair doesn’t spontaneously move. | 3/29/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 6 | VideoLecture 1 - Free Will and Determinism in Science and Philosophy - March 23, 2009 | Meet John Conway; hear about Simon Kochen and how the theorem came about. Thoughts on senility. Free will and determinism in science and philosophy over the last two millennia; the implications of Newtonian and quantum mechanics. What Conway and Kochen mean by “free will.” What the theorem does, and doesn’t, imply about behavior. A brief introduction to the three underlying principles of the theorem: SPIN, FIN, and TWIN. The idea of talking to particles, and how it’s like playing 20 questions with your sisters. | 3/22/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 6 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
Should have been an hour
Conway said in his last lecture that he usually gives the talk in one hour, and I think it shows. He spends the first three lectures laying the groundwork for his theory, which is basically a recap of basic QM. We then finally get to the theorem, which basically says that if we have free will, free will must exist at a lower level too. Ok, great. But he doesn't prove free will (and says it's basically impossible), so at the end of the six hours you feel somewhat like you've wasted your time.
That said, he makes some outstandingly good points, such as that people believe in determinism mainly because they believe in a clockwork universe, with physics over a hundred years out of date. I'd recommend just listening to lecture 4 and 6.
Update to Quicktime 64bit?
I very much enjoyed these lectures and would like to review them again. But since I upgraded to Mac Lion, I can no longer download or watch them. It appears that Apple's forced iTunes update dropped support for the encoding used to publish these lectures. I would very much like a new version that I can play again. Even if you simply offer them for download from a web server, I can still find some solution. But in iTunes, I cannot even download them.
