Determinism and statistics
Hello Rabbi Michi,
The central scientific claim in physics is that the laws of nature are deterministic. I would like to ask a few questions about this:
1) Is even the most complex and chaotic system, in principle, deterministic, and therefore predictable, and is it just our inability to assume all the data and all the interactions between them, and is statistics merely an expression of this inability?
2) What is the relationship between the laws and the probability that something will actually happen? In other words, just because the laws are fixed, does not mean that things will happen. For example, if given such and such data and a period of time, life may be created on a certain planet, there are still things that can go wrong, such as a comet colliding with it. And even if we assume that the comet went on a collision course a million years ago, additional variables can still be created along the way that were not there at the time of its departure, and therefore the laws of physics also determined that something can happen, there is still a possibility that it will not happen.
3) What is the relationship between the laws and the human soul and social and historical laws (e.g. the cyclical nature of nations)? In other words, free choice is not necessarily due to the determinism of physics in the brain. Is it possible to say this about the entire mental structure of man? And does physics affect social and historical processes (or laws), and therefore are they also deterministic?
I hope I didn't ask too many things in one question 🙂
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- The laws of physics are deterministic, except in quantum theory (a selection will be discussed below). There, according to the accepted interpretation, there is randomness, but it is only on small scales (very small particles). Therefore, it is commonly thought that the inability to predict does not express anything but incompetence.
- The ratio is 1:1. What you call unexpected things (a comet) is also a result of the laws of nature.
- When a person's choice is involved, it can of course change what happens in the world (unless you are a determinist). Therefore, laws that deal with events involving a person are laws of the apparent and not deterministic laws. But even there, of course, it is not about randomness but about choice. These are different things.
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