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Does knowledge of a new fact alter knowledge of previously known facts?
In quantum mechanics, there's the idea that measuring one thing affects another unrelated thing. I'd argue that even being aware of any new thing changes it a bit. If I'm measuring something, I'm aware of it, but how did I know what to measure in the first place?
Here's the noodle baker though: If you have no choice as to what you are and aren't aware of, do you have free will?
I'd say yes because you have bettered your ability to make a decision.
I'd say no because you should be able to decide what you want to know.
Am I making sense?
Tags: awareness, experiment, measure, philosophy, quantum, thought
Views: 1
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bob on -
If you have no choice as to what you are aware of therefore you are unaware of the possibility of a choice and therefore free will does not enter into it ie there is no such thing under those conditions.
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Permalink Reply by Justen on -
"In quantum mechanics, there's the idea that measuring one thing affects another unrelated thing"
You've got that wrong, for starters.
"In quantum mechanics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle states by precise inequalities that certain pairs of physical properties, such as position and momentum, cannot be simultaneously known to arbitrarily high precision. That is, the more precisely one property is measured, the less precisely the other can be measured."
Further reading
Other (mis)interpretations of this principle are inaccurate (especially those trying to sell you bullshit pseudo-scientific justifications for believing in juju).
Second, it is pointless to make the assertion that free will does not exist, because bound in that assertion is the assumption that you can convince others, which implies that they can choose to change their minds, and thus that you accept the principle of free will. Determinism is either false or irrelevant.
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Permalink Reply by JavaGuy147 on -
BUT... whether they change their mind or not could be already determined or, as he was explaining, not free will. You cannot make an argument against it, because any argument you make can be discarded by saying you were predetermined towards it. You don't have free will as to what your response to this will be, even if you think you do. It's like the epistemological view of "how do you know you aren't dreaming?" Or "How do you know anything exists besides yourself?"
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