OrphanWilde comments on Are coin flips quantum random to my conscious brain-parts? - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (23)
Not all randomness is quantum randomness, even if everything includes a -component- of quantum randomness.
The issue is that "randomness" is a poorly-defined word. You're letting different, and opposing, definitions of randomness bleed together here (and probably in your thought processes as well). Taboo "random"; you'll rapidly see the issue. You're including chaos - that is, an essentially deterministic outcome that is impossible to predict due to the number of variables - randomness in with your quantum randomness.
ETA: You -can- define a problem such that quantum randomness applies instead of chaos randomness; simply state that the outcome of the coin flip is dependent upon an unobserved quantum event, that, say, may interrupt a single nervous signal which determines whether the coin comes up heads or tails. However, this problem is pretty far removed from the problem of coin flips in general; the coin becomes wholly unnecessary.
I've addressed this here.