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I find it a bit unsettling that those question often center on finding out whether the universe is "in principle" deterministic. Can the universe be determinist
by stiff 13y ago
I find it a bit unsettling that those question often center on finding out whether the universe is "in principle" deterministic. Can the universe be deterministic in principle but at the same time be indeterministic in that it is not possible to practically compute some things (because of computational complexity or other practical limitations)? Is practical and "theoretical determinism" different? Is "theoretical determinism" even a thing? Am I just being stupid, or has anybody serious already explored it?
- protonfish 13y agoI think that using the term "in principle" is the only way to pretend this question is difficult to answer. We observe what appears to be inherent unpredictability at the quantum level. The butterfly effect claims that imperceptible differences in starting conditions can cause significant effects (over time.) If this is an accurate model of how our universe works, we would expect that not only is nothing deterministic, but it would be extremely difficult to predict the state of reality over even short time periods. This is exactly what we observe on the macroscopic level.