4 ms·

Charlton Einstein: "You'll pry my determinism from my cold dead hands"

rubidium 11y ago
Determinism is dead. Long live an in-deterministic (and free) universe! But seriously, why many scientists are so attached to wanting a deterministic universe is beyond me. Even at the highest levels, I'm amazed that physicists have an near moral repugnance to the idea that there's randomness inherent in the universe. They even go through such lengths as inventing the many worlds theories to try and recapture determinism.
- pgwhalen 11y ago
  I would say it's because non-deterministic things aren't testable, which make them fall out of the bounds of scientific investigation. Obviously that's not really true, but it adds a certain level of discomfort to to science.
  - FrankenPC 11y ago
    Discomfort drives all powerful science.
- omalleyt 11y ago
  If you accept that all effects have causes, you accept determinism. Also, determinism will be resurrected. Look at Pilot Wave theory. It explains quantum weirdness with a deterministic worldview, but everyone would prefer to hype voodoo theories.
  - FrankenPC 11y ago
    Well..not really. "But pilot wave theory could still be important, because it has a different conceptual formulation, so if you set out to modify the theory, you get different modifications. In that sense, it is a good new idea. I personally think that you can produce a truncation of pilot-wave which doesn't coincide with ordinary quantum mechanics, but which is mostly the same as quantum mechanics when you are dealing with only a few particles only slightly entangled. In this case, you need the wavefunction to be a complicated function of the hidden-variables (the particle positions) which only obeys the Schrodinger equation approximately. This type of thing is a true modification of quantum mechanics, but I was never 100% sure that it works. I described the idea roughly in my answer to one of 'tHoofts questions on physics stackexchange." Source: http://www.quora.com/Why-dont-more-physicists-subscribe-to-pilot-wave-theory http://www.quora.com/Why-dont-more-physicists-subscribe-to-p...
    - omalleyt 11y ago
      The predictions of pilot wave theory are the same as any other interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the theory isn't new it's been around 80 years

Determinism is dead. Long live an in-deterministic (and free) universe! But seriously, why many scientists are so attached to wanting a deterministic universe is beyond me. Even at the highest levels, I'm amazed that physicists have an near moral repugnance to the idea that there's randomness inherent in the universe. They even go through such lengths as inventing the many worlds theories to try and recapture determinism.

pgwhalen 11y ago
I would say it's because non-deterministic things aren't testable, which make them fall out of the bounds of scientific investigation. Obviously that's not really true, but it adds a certain level of discomfort to to science.
- FrankenPC 11y ago
  Discomfort drives all powerful science.
omalleyt 11y ago
If you accept that all effects have causes, you accept determinism. Also, determinism will be resurrected. Look at Pilot Wave theory. It explains quantum weirdness with a deterministic worldview, but everyone would prefer to hype voodoo theories.
- FrankenPC 11y ago
  Well..not really. "But pilot wave theory could still be important, because it has a different conceptual formulation, so if you set out to modify the theory, you get different modifications. In that sense, it is a good new idea. I personally think that you can produce a truncation of pilot-wave which doesn't coincide with ordinary quantum mechanics, but which is mostly the same as quantum mechanics when you are dealing with only a few particles only slightly entangled. In this case, you need the wavefunction to be a complicated function of the hidden-variables (the particle positions) which only obeys the Schrodinger equation approximately. This type of thing is a true modification of quantum mechanics, but I was never 100% sure that it works. I described the idea roughly in my answer to one of 'tHoofts questions on physics stackexchange." Source: http://www.quora.com/Why-dont-more-physicists-subscribe-to-pilot-wave-theory http://www.quora.com/Why-dont-more-physicists-subscribe-to-p...
  - omalleyt 11y ago
    The predictions of pilot wave theory are the same as any other interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the theory isn't new it's been around 80 years