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Can you predict it? If not, it’s a random event.
by throwaway84742 8y ago
Can you predict it? If not, it’s a random event.
- sykh 8y agoIf I was given all the inputs to the system then yes. If it's known that increasing the energy in the system will lead to such events then yes. I may not predict it will occur at this date/time but one can know that such events will occur when enough energy is put in. Besides, it's not possible to prove any given event is truly random. There may always be underlying explanatory causes that are not known.
- throwaway84742 8y agoBy that logic nothing is ever truly random. Just define the states of all atoms in the universe and you have full determinism. But the fact of the matter is, you can’t establish a causal link with such flimsy evidence unless your theory also _predicts the future_. And by that I mean predicts in the strong sense: you make a prediction and record it with a third party, then see if it held. Not the kind of “predictions” we often see in climate science where a hundred different models are retroactively matched to what actually happened and a handful happen to kinda sorta match the data, if you massage it well enough.