Little Mama's Lowdown

photo:  flickr/loopfilmz

The idea of a deterministic universe is based on the philosophical theory of “deterministic systems”—that everything in the universe, what has and will occur, can be understood based on physical outcomes.

Under this belief, every action or cause produces a reaction, or effect, and every reaction in turn, becomes the cause of subsequent reactions. The outcome of such cascading events can theoretically show exactly how the system will exist at any moment in time. An example of this theory would be the simple interaction of three upright dominoes in line back-to-back. Once the first one falls, causing the second to fall, the final reaction of this small deterministic system is the third domino falling also. Small deterministic systems such as the domino effect are easily visualized but are linked to the rest of reality by cause and effect. For example, an outer force — say, someone’s finger — has to cause the first domino to fall, and the last domino may cause something else outside the system to happen — the laughter of a child, perhaps?

When creating theoretical models, systems are typically considered in isolation—external forces that don’t directly affect the dominoes are typically not taken into account when describing and analyzing a system.

In realty, no system exists in complete isolation. External forces which could affect the dominoes — a hurricane or tornado, for example — are causes that an analysis of the system might never not consider if we assume, for example, that a finger will tip the first domino. Again, theoretically, a wide range of such unexpected events and forces could be included in cause and effect calculations in a more complete deterministic system.

Deterministic philosophy is based on classic physics which scientists can use to describe all events which take place on a macroscopic level. Classic physics includes Newton’s law of motion, thermodynamics, the general theory of relativity, and the chaos theory. Systems studied under these theories can be complex, and events may be difficult to predict, but if the starting conditions were known in enough detail, then the outcomes in such systems could, theoretically be predicted.

Behaviorism, for example, is based on the psychological theory that behavior can be researched scientifically because inner mental states are considered to be deterministic, as opposed to free will. The universe conceived from a deterministic viewpoint was the general foundation for scientists until the end of the nineteenth century, when quantum mechanics were first theorized.

The theory of quantum mechanics supports — and depends upon — the idea of a “non-deterministic” universe, or “indeterminacy”. It casts everything as probabilities. If you have exact total knowledge of a system, then you can compute all possible outcomes of that system, thus forming a good probability distribution of how the new system will behave. Still, that doesn’t help you figure out what actually will happen, only what might happen, and how often.

If a particle is described by a wave passing through a narrow slit in the wall, like a water-wave passing through a narrow channel, the particle will diffract and its wave will come out in a range of angles. The narrower the slit is, the wider the diffracted wave and the greater the uncertainty in momentum afterward. Perhaps one of the most important characteristics of quantum mechanics theory tells us that the measurement of a particle’s momentum and position necessarily disturbs that particle’s momentum and position. Observing an event, in other words, changes the event.

States with both definite position and momentum do not exist in quantum mechanics, so it’s not the fault of the measurement equipment. It’s not a “bug” but a feature, and this characteristic of the subatomic level as we know it could conceivably be a scientific connection to the immeasurable spiritual world.

In the atomic and subatomic realm, objects don’t exist so much as they are a wave of possibilities, being everywhere at once until someone looks and collapses all the possibly into a definite location. In essence, until observation, everything is fuzzy—these “things” appear to exist as energy and then collapse into particles upon observation. This implies that nothing is really solid; “reality” doesn’t take form until we observe it.

By understanding that matter is made up of molecules, which are made up of atoms, which are made up of subatomic particles, which are made up of energy — and that energy doesn’t take form until the point of observation, then observation determines solidity, suggesting that there is an important significance in our own thoughts and intentions. Our minds appear to influence the fundamental building blocks of our own realities.

We can no longer exclude ourselves from the creation of our lives, because we influence our own reality.

Read more about quantum physics:

• WIRED
• Sciseek