{"title":"Free Will and Falling Cats","authors":"Frank Wilczek","doi":"arxiv-2405.04565","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"If we consider a cat to be an isolated mechanical system governed by\nT-invariant mechanics, then its ability to land on its feet after being\nreleased from rest is incomprehensible. It is more appropriate to treat the cat\nas a creature that can change its shape in order to accomplish a purpose.\nWithin that framework we can construct a useful and informative of the observed\nmotion. One can learn from this example.","PeriodicalId":501042,"journal":{"name":"arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"arXiv - PHYS - History and Philosophy of Physics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/arxiv-2405.04565","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
If we consider a cat to be an isolated mechanical system governed by
T-invariant mechanics, then its ability to land on its feet after being
released from rest is incomprehensible. It is more appropriate to treat the cat
as a creature that can change its shape in order to accomplish a purpose.
Within that framework we can construct a useful and informative of the observed
motion. One can learn from this example.