I used art history in an explanation of quatum physics...
Quantum Randomness. Ok determinism in general states that a die can be thrown and if you know all of its physics you can predict exactly what side it will land on. This eliminates classical randomness as an obstical. Now, in quantum randomness, there aren't precise ways to calculate an objects position or momentum. Instead, there are probability fields, for example there is a probability field that an electron exists in. Now one part of the region may be more likely to contain the electron than another, but we know where it probably is. Now all of these tiny probabilities all added up and super-positioning on one another create a very classical looking macroscopic universe. I have done the calculation myself. It is called the correspondence principle, if you want to look it up. Basically, even though the basic constituents of the universe are run by probabilities, the universe as a marcoscopic whole is very deterministic. A good analogy would be Seurat's painting, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", it is made out of random colored dots if you look at it up close, but from far away it looks like a picture of something.
I guess I was wrong when I said that class was totally useless.
Showing posts with label determinism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label determinism. Show all posts
Monday, April 21, 2008
Algorithmism
The entirety of the universe is dictated by a master algorithm. All the evidence points to this. The way galaxies form, the way stars orbit, the was gas clouds collapse under their gravity...the list goes on.
Even on a more human scale. People are predictable. Every little neuron firing and every chemical enduced signal is caused by some outside event, if not a memory, then a current event (current meaning something happening at that very moment).
We do things based on our past. Now even if you think "well i'll do soemthing random to disprove you, Chax!" Then you just did that "random" thing to try disprove me... and thus you just did something because of something else...not random, which just further proves determinism true.
Even dice are not random. If when a die was thrown you knew the exact speed the die was moving, how fast it was spinning, what directions it was moving and spinning and what the initial position of the die was, you could predict exactly what side it would land on.
The only reason things seem random and like choice is because we are not omniscient.
Now does this mean I believe in fate or destiny? Yes and no. I do not believe we have a reason for doing things...maening there is no ultimate goal designated by a god or soemthing of that nature. We are simply predetermined by the logics and maths of the universe to do what we are doing. There is no intrinsic purpose. I am typing this blog untimately because of the big bang. Cause and effect times 9308947923849387498374983749384.
Even on a more human scale. People are predictable. Every little neuron firing and every chemical enduced signal is caused by some outside event, if not a memory, then a current event (current meaning something happening at that very moment).
We do things based on our past. Now even if you think "well i'll do soemthing random to disprove you, Chax!" Then you just did that "random" thing to try disprove me... and thus you just did something because of something else...not random, which just further proves determinism true.
Even dice are not random. If when a die was thrown you knew the exact speed the die was moving, how fast it was spinning, what directions it was moving and spinning and what the initial position of the die was, you could predict exactly what side it would land on.
The only reason things seem random and like choice is because we are not omniscient.
Now does this mean I believe in fate or destiny? Yes and no. I do not believe we have a reason for doing things...maening there is no ultimate goal designated by a god or soemthing of that nature. We are simply predetermined by the logics and maths of the universe to do what we are doing. There is no intrinsic purpose. I am typing this blog untimately because of the big bang. Cause and effect times 9308947923849387498374983749384.
Quanto-Determinism
Quantum mechanics tells us that at a certain microscopic level the physical dynamics of particles becomes based on probability.
"Classical" or Relativistic Mechanics tells us that everything is clear-cut and completely predictable. Which would mean in the grand scheme of things, the universe is deterministic (free will doesn't exist since EVERYTHING is fundamentally mathematical and therefore, predictable [it is possible to predict the outcome of dice mathematically]).
Now some people have speculated, since quantum mechanics came around, that since the subatomic world is based on probability, determinism was out.
But this isn't necessarily true. Determinism still can exist, but with an underlying quantum probability component. That means that even though there is randomness in the universe, the outer more classical shell will still behave predictibly. This then means that the smaller you get, the most unpredictable things become.
On a side note, some people think that just because randomness exists, that free will exists. This is not true. Even if the brain worked on a quantum level, your thoughts and actions would still be "caught in the wind" of what ever random outcomes your brain spat out. There is no room for free will in any modern model of the universe. What you do is the ultimate outcome of everything that happened before that time.
The end.
"Classical" or Relativistic Mechanics tells us that everything is clear-cut and completely predictable. Which would mean in the grand scheme of things, the universe is deterministic (free will doesn't exist since EVERYTHING is fundamentally mathematical and therefore, predictable [it is possible to predict the outcome of dice mathematically]).
Now some people have speculated, since quantum mechanics came around, that since the subatomic world is based on probability, determinism was out.
But this isn't necessarily true. Determinism still can exist, but with an underlying quantum probability component. That means that even though there is randomness in the universe, the outer more classical shell will still behave predictibly. This then means that the smaller you get, the most unpredictable things become.
On a side note, some people think that just because randomness exists, that free will exists. This is not true. Even if the brain worked on a quantum level, your thoughts and actions would still be "caught in the wind" of what ever random outcomes your brain spat out. There is no room for free will in any modern model of the universe. What you do is the ultimate outcome of everything that happened before that time.
The end.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
