Q&A: Choice and the Uncertainty Principle
Choice and the Uncertainty Principle
Question
Hello Rabbi Michi. Today you answered me regarding a question about the uncertainty principle. I’d be happy to ask: have you written or spoken in an interview or podcast about this principle and its connection to human choice? When I think about it, even with this principle there is no choice, only randomness. There is some probability that I will do action A or action B (assuming the brain is the only cause of actions) — but for example, if a person is asked whether he likes tea, and then is asked the same thing the next day, I don’t think his answer would change because of the randomness of atoms in the brain. The main question is: how can a person’s consciousness be defined in material terms at all? I just don’t think it can be. Thank you.
Answer
I didn’t understand the connection between the sentences, and I also didn’t understand some of the sentences themselves.
I have a chapter in the book The Science of Freedom about how quantum theory does not help explain choice.
I didn’t understand everything else.