Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!indri!aplcen!aplcomm!stdc.jhuapl.edu!jwm
From: jwm@stdc.jhuapl.edu (Jim Meritt)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Making fires and making minds - the laws of physics prevail
Message-ID: <3736@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu>
Date: 26 Apr 89 13:44:35 GMT
References: <10992@bcsaic.UUCP> <16878@cup.portal.com> <17374@cup.portal.com> <286@ctycal.UUCP>
Sender: news@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu
Reply-To: jwm@aplvax.UUCP (Jim Meritt)
Organization: JHU-Applied Physics Laboratory
Lines: 30

In article <286@ctycal.UUCP> ingoldsb@ctycal.COM (Terry Ingoldsby) writes:
}>      Given enough processing power, one could in theory predict the action
}> of every particle in the universe, and therefore the behavior of every
}> system, whether human or not, in that universe.  And all from the laws of
}> 
}> Dan Hankins
}
}NO!  Absolutely NOT true.  This is the fundamental mistake that most people
}make, generally because all the physics they are familiar with is Classical
}Physics.  Classical physics is a good approximation for large numbers of
}particles, at non-relativistic speeds.  All physics philosophies attempt to
}describe natural phenomena; Quantum physics is closer to the `truth' (please
}lets not start a discussion of the meaning of truth - I mean the way things
}behave in nature) than is Classical (Newtonian physics).  Quantum physics
}cannot predict where one particle passing through a slit is going to go.  Not
}with 1, 10 or 100 supercomputers.  All it can do is tell you the probability
}of a particle going in a particular direction.

Not to mention that Chaos makes it impossible to make the prediction
no matter HOW powerful your processor since you do not know PRECISELY the
initial conditions (because 'precisely' simply isn't, given Heisenburg &
Planck)


The Universe is a strange place...
With strange attractors!



The above was test data, and not the responsibility of any organization.