> what if you had a scanner, and a powerful computer, and knew the arrangement and composition of the material, and could 'predict' on some level, when those at

> what if you had a scanner, and a powerful computer, and knew the arrangement and composition of the material, and could 'predict' on some level, when those atoms would produce radiation (I know this is probably impossible) Quantum theory specifies that this is impossible not just in practice but in principle. Radioactive decay on an individual-atom level is literally impossible to predict, and not just because we don't have sensitive enough measurements. "Arrangement and composition" don't have their standard meaning at atomic scale; particles are probability fields, not BBs.