The Free Will Theorem

By John H. Conway, Simon Kochen. 2006

412 citations recorded by the source corpus.

On the basis of three physical axioms, we prove that if the choice of a particular type of spin 1 experiment is not a function of the information accessible to the experimenters, then its outcome is equally not a function of the information accessible to the particles. We show that this result is robust, and deduce that neither hidden variable theories nor mechanisms of the GRW type for wave function collapse can be made relativistic and causal. We also establish the consistency of our axioms and discuss the philosophical implications.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Physiology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c0f5d6421e11d3b890f3f9863c52fbd65a40bcd8

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Citations in the corpus

The Strong Free Will Theorem (2008, methodology): “However, as we have shown in [1], the theorem is robust in that approximate forms of these axioms still lead to a similar conclusion.”
Do We Really Understand Quantum Mechanics? (2012, background): “Entangled particles of spin 1 are also considered in the derivation of the Conway-Kochen theorem [130, 131].”
QBism, the Perimeter of Quantum Bayesianism (2010, methodology): “Now let us consider two possible measurements, H1 and H2 for the left-hand side, with potential outcomes a b c d and e f g h (15) 27Overall this particular technique has its roots in Stairs [58], and seems to bear some resemblance to the gist of Conway and Kochen’s “Free Will Theorem” [59,60]. respe”
Free randomness can be amplified (2011, methodology): “[28] Conway, J. H. & Kochen, S.”
Algorithmic Pseudorandomness in Quantum Setups. (2014, background): “…to test non-locality, another distinctive feature of quantum mechanics, we show that if the measurement independence between the two parties [12–15] is achieved via private computable pseudo random number generators, an eavesdropper can start guessing their inputs from the information on…”