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Dreamcatcher__ 87M
7020 posts
2/28/2015 9:49 pm

Great post!

I quite agree, Svetya, that we should not let our present inability to understand how and why this amazing, endlessly fascinating, beautiful universe came to be as it is stand in the way of trying to understand. What greater quest can there be than, in Stephen Hawking's words, "to have a complete understanding of the events around us, and of our own existence?"

Personally, I am as willing to let all the religions and beliefs of the world have a go at it as I am to let science do so. Nobody gets a head start, but they all have to play by the rules of verifiability. Why else do we have brains?

Although I've argued elsewhere that we have a degree of free will, I appreciate that quantum mechanics has circumscribed the possibility that we can actually do anything unpredictable, i.e. something not governed by the laws of physics. We just haven't yet found a complete set of basic laws. When we do, however, predicting what we will do will still require calculations beyond anything imaginable. Because of the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics (we cannot be certain of both the position and velocity of a particle; the more certainly one is known, the less certainly the other is known), there will always be a degree of randomness. We will be at best capable only of developing better approximation methods which will do no more than allowing us to make better predictions of probable outcomes. So, for all practical purposes, within the bounds of our circumstances and the laws of physics, we exercise free will.

P.S. I still think the guy in the bar was trying to get the pretty girl to notice him by pulling her pigtails.



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