Every day, we know more about our universe, and come up with new laws to predict it. Yesterday, I was arguing with SlackerPro about wether or not there was true randomness in our universe. I asserted that there wasn’t, and everything could be predicted by certain laws, be they physical, quantum, or even more fundemental. At that time, I wasn’t quite thinking about the consequences of a complete deterministic (predictable by rules) universe.
I will refer to “systems” in the article. It’s really hard to define “system”, but I will try. Systems are mainly used to separate internal and external elements in a given problem. An example would be a pulley. If you were referring to that pully, you would include the pully inside your “system”. You would not include a whorehouse in that system. In short, a “system” is an area in 4-dimentional space.
A few minutes ago, as I was doing last week’s math homework, I realized that a completely deterministic universe would also probably mean pre-destination. This would mean that the entireity of time and our civilization is already planned out. There actually is a fate, because everything is going to happen exactly as the rules say they will. Everything is pre-determined by the rules, and it was pre-determined that this article would be written.
A big question question is: can a deterministic universe exist without pre-destination. I don’t know the answer to that question. From the standpoint of classical physics and “common sense” logic, the answer is no. However, the determinism may be at a level we don’t understand yet, and might not necessarily result in pre-destination. I certainly hope not, because it would mean that I really have no real control over my life. The perception that I have control over my life is calculated inside the determinism. Ignore that last statement, I’m not sure if I even understood that.
In any case, I don’t know what to believe, but I will tell you, that pre-destination has some pretty serious consequences as well. For one thing, it would reduce the forth dimension to the same status as the other three dimensions.
In a system with some degree of randomness, where the “future” of any given point (in 4-d space-time) cannot be predicted, the 4th dimension only exists in the “past” of that point. There can’t be anything in the “future”, because it hasn’t happened yet, and the system isn’t determinisitic, so it can’t be described.
Clearly, this is not the case when you’re describing the first three dimensions. However, if the universe is deterministic and can be predicted fully, the “future” would exist, because it is already there.
With the 4th dimention just like the first 3 dimensions, I suppose a 4 dimensional entity or entities could exist, and have a 5th dimension that they can only indirectly percieve, somewhat like our perception of time. This entity could be “God”. Interestingly, a deterministic universe would allow for an omnipresent God.
On another note, perhaps the universe is deterministic, but the Uncertainty Principle (the fact that the more precisely we measure a particle, the more we will have changed the particle, rendering our original measurement useless) is put into place to prevent us from completely determining the laws of the Universe. For certainly, if we were to totally discover the laws of the universe and be able to predict our own future exactly, it would destroy the entire system (since if we were to predict our own future, we would alter the future, invalidating that prediction, breaking down the system). Of course, it would take a computer of immense power to do such a task. Perhaps that is a “secondary buffer” to keep us in check.
It’s funny how in Physics, every natural law is self-enforcing and crafted so perfectly as to fit with every other law, yet never contradict. Perhaps there is a great designer who created such a masterful system. Perhaps it’s just my primitive religious instinct flaring up again.
Anyway, I’m still a fucking week behind on math homework, and just blew an hour writing this. Back to work for me.
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