# Do subatomic particles have free will? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 18, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-subatomic-particles-have-free-will/460440 "2008-08-18T16:16:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-subatomic-particles-have-free-will/460440/21 "2008-08-22T08:31:19Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] _How do they MOVE?_ [/quote] Brownian motion in many cases; they just bounce around randomly until Slot A happens to hit Tab B, as it were. The interplay of electromagnetic fields is often involved as well. Plus, there’s a fair amount of the molecular sized version of springs, levels, and so forth. They don’t need “free will” to work any more than a car engine does. [QUOTE=Chimera] What tells them to do this? [/quote] The laws of physics. What “tells” a rock to fall when you drop it ? [QUOTE=Chimera] Saying “there’s no proof of this”, while technically correct, is roughly similar to the people of old who claimed that animals don’t think, feel emotions or experience pain. [/QUOTE] Not at all. We know enough about the machinery behind thoughts and emotions to know that molecules have no such things. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-subatomic-particles-have-free-will/460440/22 "2008-08-22T09:08:07Z")
[QUOTE=NineToTheSky] Just to help me out here: what is free will? [/QUOTE] Some people (who are wrong 😉 ) think it is the power to act in a way that is completely indeterministic, a way that is not determined by heredity, environment, and prior influences. Other people (compatibilists) think that it is a matter of your action being caused in the right way by your desires (‘in the right way’ ruling out actions caused by coercion, or by desires which are the result of brainwashing, etc.. Details differ widely among various compatibilists.) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-subatomic-particles-have-free-will/460440/23 "2008-08-22T10:26:04Z")
And some other people think it is the freedom to make moral decisions, and has only an indirect association with actions. ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2008, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-subatomic-particles-have-free-will/460440/24 "2008-08-22T11:48:42Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] And some other people think it is the freedom to make moral decisions, and has only an indirect association with actions. [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > Originally Posted by **Sophistry and Illusion** > _it is a matter of your action being caused in the right way by your desires_ Don’t both the above rather conclusively rule out sub atomic particles? ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-subatomic-particles-have-free-will/460440/25 "2008-08-24T22:00:39Z")
\>“What do sub-atomic particles want??” They want various things. Electrons want protons, for example. If you like, subatomic particles are nothing but “want”. Their wants are all powerful, always clear, always constant. A more useful question would be for subatomic particles to ask, what do humans want? Now, that’s a question endlessly confusing and yet seemingly of vast importance. Amusingly, subatomic particles have no motivation to ask. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-subatomic-particles-have-free-will/460440/26 "2008-08-25T07:31:05Z")
[QUOTE=NineToTheSky] Don’t both the above rather conclusively rule out sub atomic particles? [/QUOTE] Pretty much. Free will requires a certain minimum level of intelligence (or at \*least \* sentience), among other things. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-subatomic-particles-have-free-will/460440/27 "2008-08-25T09:08:42Z")
Maybe we are the imagination of particles. Maybe they are using us to “discover” themselves in three dimensions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-subatomic-particles-have-free-will/460440.md?page=1)