The question of human free will has remained a central philosophical challenge for millennia. In physics, the issue of determinism versus indeterminism resurfaces in quantum mechanics, where measurement choices play a key role. In this work, we propose an experimental protocol inspired by delayed-choice quantum eraser experiments, in which the random switching of measurement settings is not performed by a quantum random number generator (QRNG), but instead by human participants making rapid spontaneous choices. If human choices are fundamentally unpredictable in a way that is not reducible to quantum mechanics or physical determinism, then the universal wave function could not have encoded them prior to the decision event. By introducing quantum memories to extend the decision window and ensuring strict separation and blindness of participants, this experiment could test whether interference patterns depend on genuinely free human choices or yield results identical to QRNG-based protocols.
Chakir Fikri (Tue,) studied this question.
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