Unless We are Robots, Classical and Quantum Theories are Fundamentally Inadequate

Abstract

Abstract In classical physics, all change in nature is believed to take place in an unbroken chain of cause and effect. In quantum physics, change is believed to be irreducibly probabilistic and most fundamentally random. Neither classical physical determinism nor orthodox quantum indeterminism is consistent with causally efficacious conscious minds. If either is correct, we humans are robots with no free will. For a way out of this meaninglessness, recent progress toward a subtler nonlocal causal wave model including real mind is overviewed. The model is in the direction of Sankhya ontology and Yoga epistemology in the ancient holistic Vedic account, which we will see is rich enough for rational explanation and empirical validation of free will.