Q&A: Laplace’s Demon
Laplace’s Demon
Question
I heard the claim that modern science—even without quantum theory—contradicts Laplace’s demon. Is that true? The gist of the argument is that in principle it’s impossible to calculate things (numbers) with exact infinite precision so that they add up to a finite state, and that’s what would be required here (and here it’s even more fundamental, since every change, even at the very lowest level, would have an enormous effect).
Answer
Not true. In principle it can be calculated, but it would take a very long time.
Discussion on Answer
I’d be happy to hear a response from the team to the previous comment. It really does seem from Wikipedia that it’s not possible; I also heard this in a lecture by, if I remember correctly, Professor Amnon Shashua.
If you want a response, post a concrete argument here.
At https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace%27s_demon?utm_source=chatgpt.com, which is the Wikipedia entry on the subject, it sounds like the arguments there are substantive—that this is not possible (even under classical computation), of course impossible to compute in principle and not just technically. I also found this article: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2008.09821 (I’m not sure I understood everything, but I got the basic idea), and I especially enjoyed—and dug into a bit more—the argument of David Wolpert.