Is Quantum Mechanics the saviour of our Free Will?

As a short bit of context settings, there are two topics here that I loosely understand but an explanation of both is necessary in order to draw my conclusion

Quantum mechanics

This is the study of the very small. The effects of light waves/particles seem to be the most popularised experiments that demonstrate the apparently unusual behaviour of things at the sub-atomic level.

Without wishing to bastardise an explanation of the quantum world, the behaviours that we witness in this world have been explained in a number of different theories. The one gathering the most attention of late (and seeming to have the most support) is the Many Worlds interpretation by Hugh Everett III. In this hypothesis (which as I say, has considerable scientific support) it’s proposed that there are many (possibly infinite) worlds (and indeed, entire universes). Some of this worlds could be entirely alien to use, possibly even have different Physical rules. Others would be almost identical, save for perhaps that the dot above the “i” in Medium’s chosen typeface is 0.0001% smaller.

Free will

This is similar to self determinism. You’re ability to choose to do whatever you wish. The theory I’m most interested in here is that there is no free will. This has been popularised by Sam Harris (whom to say I admire is an understatement). Sam has published a throughly inferring book explaining why he thinks free will doesn’t exist. The best argument I’ve heard is thus:

Imagine you hold out both hands in front of you. I ask you to choose to close the hand of your choice and make a fist. I say you can take 1 second to make this choose, 1 decade to make it, or anything in between. You ca agonise over the chose for hours if you like and then at the last femtosecond change your mind and opt for the other hand.

All makes sense so far right?

So, you now proudly attest that you have free will as you chose the hand.

Suppose I now rewound time 1 second before you revealed this choice. What, if anything, would change the outcome of this event. If you think long and hard, you’ll probably come to the conclusion that nothing will change the “choice” you made (subject to external factors influencing you in the last second) in a sense, the choice as to which hand you turn into a fist was preordained based on everything that had happened in your life up to that moment.

Strange and perhaps discomforting, but it seems irreconcilably true.

So, there we have it, we have no free will. Everything that ever happens to us is based on everything that lead to the moment it all happened. You might seek some comfort in the knowledge that the thing that determines the outcome of each decision is the influence of external sources. Suffering a lifetime of bullying will cause you to make different choices. So you could argue that changing your environment and thus the impact external forces have on you is the closest thing you have to free will. However, all of those external forces are also preordained.

This leads to the inevitable conclusion that the entire universe is on a set path which was inscribed at the down of time some 13.8 billion years ago.

So now we have a rough understand of quantum mechanics and the no-free will argument, let me move into my refutation.

If there exists a universe that is a carbon copy of ours and after 13.8 billion years has lead to precisely the same history as our own up until this moment, how is it possible that this other universe enables me to close the opposite hand? It seems that the two theories are not compatible.

I have no real preference which of these two hypothesis are true, and perhaps there’s someone sufficiently intellectually superior that can explain how these two ideas are compatible. If so, I genuinely welcome to opportunity to be educated.

Hope that if nothing else, you found the above thought provoking.