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I'm not trying to be unscientific here but i cannot wrap this around my head that scientifically anything can work randomly except a conscious mind which is capable of making a random decision. how can there be a general rule or law that picks a random value ? There always have to be a rule !

Please feel free to rubbish my idea but i know radioactive decay for example can be considered a random event.. but how can you understand randomness in this case ?

Vineetz
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    Isn’t there supposed to be…? It’s best for humans not to make assumptions about how Nature is supposed to be, and instead observe how it is. – Ghoster Nov 28 '22 at 05:10
  • @Ghoster all assumptions about how Nature is supposed to be come first from intuitions which come from observations. Though I think you're correct I also think it's worth pointing out we'd never have made any progress if we didn't let assumptions about how it's "supposed to be" guide us – Señor O Nov 28 '22 at 05:16
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    How can you understand randomness in this case ? Have you studied quantum tunneling? – Ghoster Nov 28 '22 at 05:23
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    except a conscious mind Are you suggesting that a conscious mind does not operate according to the laws of physics? If so, a lot of physicists would disagree. – Ghoster Nov 28 '22 at 05:25
  • Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking. – Community Nov 28 '22 at 06:06
  • Certainly related and possibly a duplicate? - Is radioactive decay triggered by quantum fluctuations? and the links therein. – Farcher Nov 28 '22 at 08:36
  • Does this answer your question? What is the reason that Quantum Mechanics is random? – John Rennie Nov 28 '22 at 10:35
  • This seemed more like a [philosophy.se] question. – StephenG - Help Ukraine Nov 28 '22 at 12:46
  • @Ghoster A conscious mind, you, others, me if given to choose something between two options, can definitely pick something randomly. I am pretty sure i can pick between three treasure boxes without knowing which holds what. There no rule and even id not be sure why i picked the one i did. So everything probably needs to have a mind of its own to make a random choice. – Vineetz Dec 05 '22 at 08:57
  • everything probably needs to have a mind of its own That is a fringe idea that has nothing to do with mainstream physics. – Ghoster Dec 05 '22 at 17:48

2 Answers2

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how can there be a general rule or law that picks a random value ? There always have to be a rule !

That's a reasonable hunch to have, but just turns out to be completely incorrect when you look at the evidence. Lots of things are governed by randomness in quantum mechanics. For decades many scientists, including Einstein, erroneously held onto this idea that what appears random to us must be governed by some deeper laws we just don't know about yet.

The contribution of many physicists over the years to demonstrably prove that some quantities are truly random was awarded the nobel prize this year. For more information, look up the "EPR paradox" and "Bell's inequalities".

Señor O
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Take the randomness of the number coming up when throwing a dice. If the results are not truly random it means the dice is biased.

How can randomness occur in the case of radioactive decay

Radioactive decay is as random as the fall of a biased dice. Quantum mechanical states, of which radioactive decay is a part, are biased by the quantum mechanical probability of the decay happening, the wavefunction $Ψ$ is the quantum mechanical solution for the particular decay, and $Ψ^*Ψ$ is the probability of the decay happening.

anna v
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  • Using a classical dice to answer a question explicitly about quantum randomness is probably confusing, as a classical dice is never truly random, if thrown in a classical world. – BjornW Nov 28 '22 at 11:48
  • @BjornW But that is what I am saying, the frequency plot would show a bias. – anna v Nov 28 '22 at 13:15
  • I guess I mean that the OP is asking about why quantum randomness occurs in itself, and neither a fair nor a biased classical dice is a good analogy.. (to be fair, nothing is :) – BjornW Nov 28 '22 at 13:33
  • As per my understanding, when we roll the dice, its never truly random. The outcome depends on the classical laws of physics like the force, angle etc with which we have rolled the dice, gravity, the surface, moisture etc etc. Its random for us because we cannot measure the details. But in terms of radioactive decay, is it truly random or is it like the rolling of a dice ? – Vineetz Dec 05 '22 at 08:51
  • @Vineetz "Its random for us because we cannot measure the details" and the details, direction etc of various forces have random directions . Radioactive decay is governed by the quantum mechanical solutions for the particular decaying particle (boundary conditions), the wavefunction $Ψ$. the probability to see one particular particle to decay is given by $Ψ^*Ψ $. So it is not random, it is weighted by this. – anna v Dec 05 '22 at 09:18
  • @annav thanks for the precise answer. So radioactive decay is not completely random, although many use this as an example for randomness. I know I'm going out of the scope of physics here but can you think of any example of randomness apart from a conscious mind. PS: I'm not intending to speculate anything but just trying to see if there's any such occurance indeed or is it utterly impossible. Again thanks for your answer – Vineetz Dec 05 '22 at 14:42
  • @Vineetz it is really complicated to define randomness. found this: https://medium.com/smith-hcv/randomness-information-theory-and-kolmogorov-complexity-6471e873bcd7 – anna v Dec 05 '22 at 18:38