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As for free will, Einstein was particularly offended by some of the consequences of quantum mechanics which seemed to remove determinism from the most elementary of particle interactions.

If fundamental interactions are in fact deterministic at this point, we haven't learned how to predict their consequences, which has led to the many interpretations of quantum mechanics. Einstein was fond of "hidden variables" since it held out some hope of quantum mechanics at some point being deterministic once again:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_variable_theory

His interpretation is, however, not widely accepted. In other words, "free will" may be an emergent property of quantum interactions.



http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/06/thou-art-physic.html

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/03/righting-a-wron.html

free will is probably a further side effect of the same biological processes that gave rise to what we view as self-awareness: recursive thinking.




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