Do electrons have free will?

No, electrons do not possess free will.

For something to exhibit 'will' (whether 'free' or not) it must necessarily possess
conscious agency as a prerequisite.

Everything we know about consciousness suggests that it is an emergent

phenomenon of complex living organisms that possess nervous systems, high
levels of cognitive sophistication and consequent self-awareness. Anything not
possessing these things cannot exhibit consciousness as we understand it.
Therefore, an electron cannot be conscious any more than a rock can, and so it
cannot exhibit will. The question as to whether it can exhibit free will is then
somewhat academic.

Regarding other comments on this thread about randomness in the electron's

behaviour, I feel an important clarification is needed. When we use the word
'random' both in everyday language and in certain contexts in physics, we mean
behaviour that we cannot predict because we lack sufficient information about its
prior causes, but which would be predictable - in principle - if our knowledge of
those prior causes was perfect and complete. In other words, by 'random' we
mean 'difficult to predict but still deterministic'. But according to the standard
interpretations of quantum mechanics, the behaviour of quantum systems (and
particles such as electrons) is not even predictable in principle; their behaviour is
completely indeterministic, in that it is absolutely impossible to predict even if our
knowledge of such systems is as perfect and complete as is theoretically
possible.

Finally, as other posters have mentioned, it has yet to be established that human
beings actually have 'free will' either. It is highly likely (in my opinion) that the
whole concept of 'free will' is simply obsolete philosophical baggage inherited
from religions, which invented it in a rather desperate and pathetic attempt to
reconcile the existence of evil with belief in an all-loving, all-powerful god (See
Theodicy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The... ); it was only by conferring on human
beings the mysterious attribute of 'free will', and giving us the ability to disobey
divine law, that evil could be 'explained' as something entirely man-made,
thereby letting a putative all-loving, all-powerful god off the hook.

In fact, there is no known mechanism by which human beings could think and act
independently of the influence of the processes of their physiology, and there is
substantial experimental evidence which indicates that our sense of 'free will' is
illusory. Thus, while our behaviour might be so complex as to give the
appearance of free will, it is nevertheless deterministic (well, at least down the
the quantum level, when things become truly indeterministic, of course), and if
we could attain complete and perfect knowledge of our own physiological and
neurological states from one moment to the next, we would - in principle - be able
to predict our thoughts and actions from one moment to the next, in response to
any external stimuli or situational contexts.
As a matter of fact, the famous mathematical physicist Roger Penrose has put
forward a theory that quantum mechanics can explain free will
(http://www.informationphilosophe...). However, his theory is very controversial,
not really accepted in the scientific community, and the consensus seems to be
that there are many holes in his theory.

I, for one, do wonder at the possibility. Many philosophers dispute that we really
have any free will at all, if you take it to mean that it is something independent of
our biological mechanisms. They feel that our sense of free will is largely an
illusion. As a matter of fact, there are psychological experiments showing that our
brain has largely determined our decisions for us before we have consciously
made our decisions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neu...).

As the quantum effects become larger the smaller the object becomes, if
Penrose's theory turns out to be correct, then maybe a case can be made that
electrons may have free will, since they are definitely small enough to have a
significant quantum effect. However, many will think that that is not likely.

Edit: Kristi, I have not personally read Penrose's study regarding this issue, but
here is my thought on what you said:

In science, one can think of randomness, or noise, as simply things that we

cannot explain or account for. True, due to the Heinsenburg's uncertainty
principle, which states that there is a fundamental limit to how precise we can be,
there might be randomness that we simply cannot account for. However, there
are also disputes that Heinsenburg's uncertainty principle is not an intrinsic
characteristic of physics, meaning that we might be able to be more precise than
its limitations. If that is the case (though I'm not saying that it is likely), then one
can say that there might be other 'forces' influencing the electrons in what we
now assume as random.

Furthermore, with the advent of String theory (which I'm not well-versed in), it is
also postulating extra dimensions to our universe, and I believe the current
consensus is that there are 11 dimensions in our universe, if String Theory is
actually true. Who knows what might be hiding in those extra dimensions?
Maybe a different set of rules very different from the physical rules in our normal
4 dimensions applies in these extra dimensions. Maybe free will can then be
explained.

I am not saying that any of this makes any sense, but these are areas that
physicists are doing research in. I have a hard time believing that the world is
deterministic, as the Hard Determinists claim it to be, but the majority of scientific
evidence is pointing in the other direction at the moment. I am interested in
Penrose's proposition, but I am not sure that he is right.