Friday, 6 May 2016

Casuality and Determinism.

Determinism is the idea that the future is fixed. I believe that the universe is deterministic. I believe that, given perfect information, you would be able to predict all events through the lifetime of our universe. Why?

  1. Interactions between fundamental particles (atoms) are deterministic.
  2. All matter is composed of fundamental particles
  3. Objects whose constituent parts are deterministic are also deterministic.

1+2+3 = All objects/matter/stuff in the universe behaves in a deterministic fashion.


Disagree? Then you must be able to challenge one of the three premises, assuming no structural flaws in my argument.





Note 1: Probability as we commonly use it is a product of ignorance. It is a feature of our mental models of the world rather than of the world itself. Probability is in the mind.

Note 2: Does quantum mechanics break premise 1? I'm not sure but if your knowledge of physics is at the point where you actually believe that observation collapses the wave-function, that entanglement with an intelligent mind in one very specific manner is somehow magically different from all other entanglements with non-sentient matter or indirect entanglements with us, you probably also lack the knowledge needed to make arguments based in/on QM.

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