IX. Predictability

In his essay “The Ghost in the Quantum Turing Machine” (2013), S. Aaronson discusses the relationship between predictability and free will. He suggests that if a Turing machine (a non-quantum computer) can consistently and accurately predict the actions of a human then he or she has no free will. This seems sensible enough, but since the source of free will we describe here is a quantum entangled system, and is distinctly non-classical, this assertion requires a modification. Today’s cutting edge supercomputers require 100 days to simulate the dynamics of a single small protein biomolecule for a millisecond (see “Supercomputer sets protein folding record” (2010)). Modeling something like an organism would likely take more than the age of the Universe even using all the classical computers available on Earth. Quantum computers with their vast computing power change things, though, and this is why we would alter Aaronson’s conjecture as follows: if a model can simulate a human then the model has a least as much free will as the human. And, frankly, it could very well turn out that it will take not just a quantum computer, but a quantum computer that implements an NLSE to perform such a simulation. That is to say, it will be necessary to give the model a mind’s eye so that it can have the ability to choose what to think about, where to focus its attention, choose what choices to make, to truly pass a Turing test. Furthermore, to create such a simulator would be to create life. The 1st person perspective is present in all fundamental particles in the Universe and the means by which this grows is through the process of entanglement combining the collection of particles into One thing. Since we would have established the quantum entangled simulator artificially, it may better be characterized as life on life support, but life nonetheless. The system would naturally follow the laws of quantum mechanics, and this would give rise to its own personality in the 1st person. It would, of course, follow the transitions of a quantum system seeking out lower and more stable energy states and this would manifest to it as its own assortment of needs, desires and a spectrum of emotions.

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