Determinism F.A.Q.
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For a deterministic model of the universe
and the explanation of the origin and ultimate fate of the universe,
click here.
Determinism: What is it?
Determinism is simply the principle that events are determined
soley by their antecedents.
The Clockwork Postulate perhaps better illustrates the
principle of determinism:
1.) IF you know the exact state of the universe
2.) AND you know the exact laws of physics
THEN you would be able to calculate anything about the past,
present, or future.
It should be noted that the Clockwork Postulate does not necessarily need to hold in order for determinism to be true. Determinism is about the future being set, as the past and present are set. This is different from being able to predict the future. Because of the Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle, nature may have contrived itself such that the future actually cannot be predicted. However, this is fairly irrelevent as far as the universe is concerned. The confusing of the two concepts is derived from the human tendency to place undo importance on (human) knowledge of phenomena. Even if we can never know the future, that doesn't mean it isn't already determined.
What determinism is NOT:
Determinism has nothing to do with religion.
Some people who believe in "god's plan" might call themselves
determinists. Those people are using a different definition; one
involving the supernatural.
If there were a different term to describe how I use the word
(and how Einstein used it), then I would use that term exclusively.
Alas, there is not.
Determinism is not just a philosophy.
The principles of determinism are based on physical phenomena. It is a model of spacetime, more specifically, the way that the dimensions are related to each other and to energy.
Unfortunately, there is no way to experimentally prove or disprove determinism. Many people wrongly think this makes determinism a philosophy and not a scientific principle. Determinism can be used to create scientific models of spacetime, and it has many real applications as far as how one goes about performing experiments, so therefore it is most meaningfully classified as a scientific model.
What is randomness?
One big source of confusion regarding determinism is
the ambiguity of the word "random."
1.) "Random" can mean truly random, i.e., that the laws
of physics are not constant. If you were to perform an experiment
twice with every condition exactly the same (requiring an identical
universe), and the experiment yielded different results, then
that would prove that true randomness exists.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to perform the same exact experiment
twice.
(Also, one would have to contrive a way for the experiment to
be observed exactly the same way, which is another thing that
we cannot do.)
2.) "Random" can mean pseudorandom, that is, unpredictable
in practice. We can never know anything about the future for certain,
so in one sense every event is pseudorandom. But "pseudorandom"
is generally reserved to describe things when we cannot reasonably
determine the outcome.
Deterministic models show us that true randomness does not exist,
and obviously pseudorandomness does exist.
Quantum Mechanics is a tool (Like Carson Daily)
Quantum Mechanics works well. There is no argument about that. Experimental data and theory agree perhaps more than any other theory. (To understand how accurate Quantum Theory is, consider measuring the distance from New York to Los Angeles and being accurate to within the width of a human hair.) So quantum theory works.
My main criticism about quantum mechanics is the interpretation
of it. Quantum Mechanics uses probablistic equations. And people
wrongly believe that that means things are intrinsically truly
random. I find this very specious reasoning for the following
reasons.
1.) If you consider all of the things that seem to behave randomly,
you will see that these are things we have only been studying
seriously for a few decades. So it doesn't seem that implausible
that "randomness" just means we don't understand what
we are seeing.
2.) If we zoom out enough, things we know to follow specific deterministic
laws seem to be probablistic. If you have a container of balls
falling in a box with a glass wall (they often will have something
like this in a large science museum e.g. the Boston Museum of
Science), you will see the curve that the pile of balls make follows
a probablistic curve, yet the underlying mechanics are all known
to be deterministic.
Actually, all of thermodynamics forgets about trying to calculate things just because with millions of particles it is way too hard to do so. So in thermodynamics, probability equations are used NOT because things are acknowledged to be intrinsically probablistic but because probability is the only feasible way to calculate.
My main criticism of the "True Randomness"
interpretation of quantum mechanics is this:
At this moment, no one knows WHY or HOW quantum mechanics equations
work, just that they
do. To be so cock sure of quantum mechanics without understanding
it is poor reasoning.
Every time we figure out how something truly works, that it is
caused by certain things, "randomness" retreats. As
we learn more, what we consider to be random is fewer and fewer
things. When we first discovered electricity, we thought lightning
bolts and such behaved randomly. Now we know that that is not
the case.
More broadly,
Asserting randomness in some things is not based on anything.
Asserting determinism in things is based on the fact that we do
see a cause and effect of many things, and extrapolate (knowing
our knowledge of physics is hardly perfect) that the "randomness"
we see is because we don't see everything or truly understand
what we see. I think it is important to point out that everything
we seem to observe being random is things that we really don't
know how they work. Probability describes them, true. But that
doesn't mean that they aren't deterministic.
Not everyone is keen on nondeterminism. Einstein regretted not being able to incorporate the equations of quantum mechanics into his theory such that he understood WHY they work. To his death bed, he still believed in determinism.
It's all or nothing...
There is no such thing as a universe being partially deterministic.
There are two problems with this.
1.) Everything in the universe is interconnected. Every particle
in the universe exerts a force on all other particles, for example.
So if there is any true randomness in the universe, the mechanics
of the universe are necessarily nondeterministic.
2.) Saying some things are truly random and some are not implies
a fundamental difference in how energy behaves. Energy is energy.
Everything we know about energy implies that all energy is equivalent.
Why don't people accept determinism?
There are several reasons why people don't accept determinism.
1.) Many people have poor reasoning and poor critical thinking skills. For example, over 95% of the people in the world believe in the supernatural. Most scientists also fall into this category. If so many of them believe in the nonsense of the supernatural, is it so implausible that they have come to a specious conclusion about other principles? People trust too much in physicists, when in reality it doesn't take a rocket scientist to be a rocket scientist. Also, most simply do not question what they are told.
2.) True randomness is the popular interpretation. This is what
people are taught in school. There is a bandwagon which everyone
likes to jump on.
3.) Very few people are knowledgable enough to criticize (or be
taken seriously when they do criticize) the popular interpretation
of quantum mechanics. Someone will read in the paper that things
are random and they will just accept it.
4.) There is confusion about what the deterministic model is.
No one is presenting the deterministic model, so most are simply
ignorant of it. When people have it explained to them properly,
in my experience, they usually end up agreeing with it.
5.) People cannot accept the concept that things are determinined. They live their whole lives assuming the future is up in the air and that they have "free will." They simply do not understand how their lives and their "choices" fit into the picture. People often say something like "if you think everything's set, then I guess you think people should not be sent to jail because it was not their fault." This shows a complete lack of understanding. It is this type of rampant poor reasoning skills which makes it an up hill battle when trying to introduce the principle of determinism.
For a deterministic model of the universe and the explanation
of the origin and ultimate fate of the universe, click
here.