Unpredictable? Randomness, Chance and Free Will (Coursera)

Unpredictable? Randomness, Chance and Free Will (Coursera)
This cross-disciplinary course deals with the undetermined, the unpredictable- or what appears to be such. Learn about the usefulness of randomness in communication and computation, the intrinsic randomness of quantum phenomena, the unpredictability of the weather, the role of chance in evolution, and the implications of the neural activity of the brain on our "free will".

This cross-disciplinary course deals with the undetermined, the unpredictable -- or what appears to be such.

Among the questions that will be addressed are:

- How is randomness defined?

- How has randomness, often seen as a nuisance, become a useful resource for communication and computing? How is it generated?

- How can physicists make the astounding claim that there is real randomness in nature?

- Can our apparently free acts be predicted by monitoring the activity of the brain?