Title: Is Consciousness Related to Quantum Physics?
Headings: Can Quantum Physics Be Used to Explain the Existence of Consciousness?
Can Quantum Physics Be Used to Explain the Existence of Consciousness?
The answer involves determinism: the theory that humans have free will
Consciousness and Quantum Physics
The Implicate Order
The Human Brain
Quantum Indeterminacy
The Double-Slit Experiment

Content: And to the extent that the law of cause and effect is subject to indeterminism—quantum or otherwise—we can take no credit for what happens. There is no combination of these truths that seems compatible with the popular notion of free will. The Double-Slit Experiment
One of the best-known cases of quantum indeterminacy is the quantum double slit experiment, in which quantum theory says that there is no way to predict with certainty which slit a given particle is going to go through unless someone actually makes an observation of it going through the slit. However, there is nothing about this choice of making this measurement which determines which slit the particle will go through. In the basic configuration of this experiment, there is a 50 percent chance the particle will go through either slit, and if someone is observing the slits, then the experimental results will match that distribution randomly. The place in this situation where humans do appear to have some sort of choice is that a person can choose whether she is going to make the observation. If she does not, then the particle does not go through a specific slit: It instead goes through ​both slits. But that's not the part of the situation that philosophers and pro-free will advocates invoke when they're talking about quantum indeterminacy because that is really an option between doing nothing and doing one of two deterministic outcomes. Cite this Article
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Jones, Andrew Zimmerman. "