The arrangement of every atom / condition of every piece of energy at this instant, is a direct result of the arrangement in the instant before.
Quantum mechanics is deterministic, provided that you accept the wave function itself as reality rather than as probability of classical coordinates.
If this brand of Determinism is the reality, how could it be that blind initial conditions resulted in a pre-determined arrangement of matter/energy/laws (us) arriving at the conclusion that they are a pre-determined arrangement of matter/energy/laws.
You're sitting at your computer. Smile.
I just made that happen (if, of course, you actually did it). Does that make the universe determinable? Not necessarily. We could trace back events to infinity if we had a time machine. The only way to make it known is by predicting the future accurately.
Furthermore, if there has been even one indeterministic event since the beginning of time, determinism is false.
If folk think everything isn't pre-determined along the lines laid out above, on what basis to they hold the view they do?
Certainly if everyone was held to determinism there would be no real morality. We couldn't punish people. An evil universe must have started at the beginning of time. Are you sure?
Without allowing variables along the way -- singularity to present time -- the first atom is defining our lives. That seems... unreasonable.
This message has been edited by dsv, Tuesday, November 01, 2005 05:32 PM
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