[axilmar]

To me, articles like these are littered with logical fallacies. I truly wonder if the quoted scientists really meant what the article says.

For example:

"And if our measurements are random, there is no way for the photons to know ahead of time which orientation will be measured. So, there can’t be any hidden variable to determine the outcome. Whether we get the left or right shoe, or the left or right glove, the result is truly random."

The above assumes that the actual properties that lead to the specific measurements have to be communicated between particles. But there has been no research in finding out if these properties are truly encoded into the particles themselves. Maybe there are no hidden variables, and maybe there is no communication, but these properties are simply encoded into the light particles, by the way they are created.

"It’s spooky because entangled objects have a quantum connection, even if they are light-years apart."

Or maybe they don't, and the appropriate properties are encoded into the particles themselves.

"Of course, randomness isn’t the only thing necessary for free will."

Free will means the power to determine one's fate through a set of thoughts (logical or not). If there is actual randomness in the Universe, then there is random will, not free will.

[mannykannot]

On the contrary, a series of groundbreaking experiments have demonstrated that Bell's Inequality holds, which is incompatible with any local hidden variable theory (and what you are saying here is a local hidden-variable theory.) Non-local hidden-variable theories are just as counter-intuitive as any of the conventional interpretations of quantum mechanics, which is not surprising, as they also have to satisfy Bell's inequality.

I have no opinion on what this says about free will, though I suspect that whatever it does, it is not much.

See, for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAXxSKifgtU

[jobigoud]

> Maybe there are no hidden variables, and maybe there is no communication, but these properties are simply encoded into the light particles, by the way they are created.

I believe this is exactly what "hidden variables" means. Some unknown property that would be present in both particles before we measure it and constraint the possible outcomes. This is inconsistent with experiments, it was shown there is no such properties.

[kenmicklas]

It's only inconsistent if you assume information can't travel faster than the speed of light, for which there is no basis besides gospel.

[Koshkin]

Science is no "gospel."

[kenmicklas]

How is it science? We literally have direct empirical evidence that suggests the contrary, but physicists do complicated mental gymnastics to come up with other explanations that fit their preconceived notions better.