Abstract
A model of free will is proposed, appealing to the similarity with simple, two-body chemical reactions where the energy curves for the reagents and for the products cross. The system at the crossing point has a freedom of choice to perform the reaction or not. The Landau-Zener formula, corresponding to the opportunity of meeting twice the crossing point, is interpreted as free will with an afterthought and generalized to the cases when a subject thinks about a choice n times. If the probability distribution pn of afterthoughts is known, the probability of a final yes decision is given. The results are generalized to situations where a preference for or against a change exists or where the freedom is only partial, has to fight with conditioning factors, and possibly decreases with increasing instances of free choice.
Highlights
The problem of free will is very ancient, and even the modern literature on it is vast and highly controversial
Some serious and profound discussions of the relation between quantum physics and at least some instances of free will do exist: a good example is an article by Peres [1]
In the present paper the above difficult issues are not addressed, but a much simpler question is considered: how is a choice influenced by a number of afterthoughts?
Summary
The problem of free will is very ancient, and even the modern literature on it is vast and highly controversial. Journal of Theoretical Chemistry processes goes back to the 1930s, with the contributions of famous physicists such as Landau, Zener, and Stuckelberg [6,7,8]; the problem of hydrogen mutual neutralization has recently been treated by much more advanced and exact methods, e.g., by Fussen and Kubach and by Stenrup et al [9, 10], but only the Landau-Zener approach and its generalizations are relevant here; it was shown, on the other hand, that the results of the Landau-Zener approach are surprisingly good, when compared with present-time methods [9]) Such behaviour exhibits an impressive resemblance with the true choices performed by living beings. The crossing problem for the hydrogen neutralization reaction, as studied by Zener [7], is shown in Figure 1 (see Appendix A)
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