Q&A: On Randomness and Pseudo-Randomness
On Randomness and Pseudo-Randomness
Question
Hello
Let me begin by saying that my question may stem from a lack of prior knowledge.
If the assumption is correct that the only thing in the universe that has free choice is the human being (and even that is debatable), then anything that happens in the material world that does not result from human choice is apparently compelled to happen that way (the principle of causality). And even if we do not know all the exact causes of everything, that does not mean they do not exist. For example, a die that is thrown and lands on a different side each time—it is obvious that if I could map all the data of the weight, gravity, and the motion of the throw, I could predict which side it would land on. So the apparent randomness we see is seemingly only an illusion, an optical error. (I once read that in quantum mechanics there is randomness… I know nothing about physics. But that is certainly exceptional. And philosophically too, it is not clear to me how randomness is possible. By the way, the same problem applies to human choice.)
If so, one could say that after the laws of nature were created, basically everything is compelled to happen and could not have been otherwise (at least everything not connected to human choices), and perhaps this is a new interpretation of the concept that “everything is in the hands of Heaven” and that “there is no chance in the world,” because after God created the laws of nature, everything is foreseen in advance.
Is this correct?
Thanks in advance
Answer
Hello Dor.
That is not entirely accurate, because human actions affect the inanimate nature around them. But processes in which human choice is not involved are indeed deterministic. If you know the circumstances at the beginning, you know what will happen in the next moment.
The only exception is in microscopic reality, where quantum theory describes a different kind of behavior, which on its face does not appear deterministic (although there is still some debate about the interpretation of this theory). But this happens only on very small scales (= a few atoms or particles), and it has no effect on larger scales, such as throwing a die or flipping a coin.
As for the relation between choice, randomness, and determinism (these are three different mechanisms, and you are apparently conflating choice with randomness), you can look at my book The Science of Freedom, which devotes much space to explaining this distinction and its implications.
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Questioner:
So would it be correct to say that until the appearance of Homo sapiens, everything was deterministic, and consequently there is no randomness at all in the theory of evolution?
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Rabbi:
Indeed, that is correct. You have grasped here something that many biologists and evolutionists do not understand. On the level of animals and on the scales relevant to their discussion, there is probably nothing random at all (because quantum theory does not deal with such scales). The “randomness” being discussed is similar to the randomness of throwing a die. It is a completely deterministic process, except that for mathematical purposes it is more convenient for us to view it as random and to use probabilistic and statistical tools to deal with it.
I discussed this at length in my book God Plays Dice.
I also defined this type of randomness in book 12 of the Talmudic Logic series as pseudo-randomness (see there also halakhic examples from the topic of pesik reisha and more).