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From: pjn@brillig (P. J. Narayanan)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Uncertainty in life
Message-ID: <6762@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 21-May-87 19:44:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: mimsy.6762
Posted: Thu May 21 19:44:18 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 23-May-87 12:54:24 EDT
Sender: news@mimsy.UUCP
Reply-To: pjn@brillig.UUCP (P. J. Narayanan)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science,
Lines: 39
Keywords: Heisenberg certain
Summary: Nothing is certain



I have this opinion about Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. 

The principle says that (in one of its forms),

		DELTA-p * DELTA-x  >=  h-bar / 2.



I have complaints about the popular interpretation of this that you cannot 
know for certain the position and momentum of any body. This, while true,
doesnot, in my opinion, imbibe all the deep meanings of the principle. Since
the Right Hand Side is a number greater than 0, this equation suggests that
you cannot measure the position (or momentum) of any body without any
uncertainty in it. That is, DELTA-p or DELTA-x can never be *EQUAL* to 0.


This suggests that you cannot know anything, repeat *ANYTHING*, for certain
in this world. It seems to me that this inference is too strong a one
philosophically, but really unavoidable from the equation. It also makes one 
think sbout the various notions men have about knowing things for certain
and the practice of taking oath and testifying in a court of law etc.


I would like to see some opinions on the net, highlighting the issues
involved. How can we sort of "tune" the above inference to everyday life;
avoiding very strong inferences??



P J Narayanan
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	God told me yesterday that he really doesnot play dice!
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