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I had always thought Einstein was being jocular when he said he believed in the God of Spinoza, but his lifelong antipathy to QM points to a seriously held beli
by 082349872349872 3y ago
I had always thought Einstein was being jocular when he said he believed in the God of Spinoza, but his lifelong antipathy to QM points to a seriously held belief. My current understanding of Spinoza is that his God was equivalent to the laws of Physics + an initial state — that which generates the Universe, and conversely to study the Universe was to learn about God. In any case, Spinoza's universe evolved in a strictly determinate manner: like GR, but unlike QM.
- Vecr 3y agoYou can say QM is deterministic either somewhat trivially in configuration space or with superdeterminism. That's probably good enough for God. Edit: or even Bohm, if you're pushing "initial state" to the breaking point.
- 082349872349872 3y agoSuperdeterminism certainly sounds good enough for a Cartesian Demon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_demon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_demon but for now I'm shelving it right next to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot . (did Russell influence the Utah Teapot? or was it merely chosen for its variety of curvatures? Looks like Newell is still alive, if I can track him down...)