Randomness

[Chesterton]

... so I think it best not to decide that randomness exists because we don't like the consequence if it doesn't.

What makes you think that?

(Sorry, bad little joke. )

 

[durangodawood]

Sorry, I don't have another scale available.



A matter of logic.



How can you know it's not?



How can you know they don't?

1. many other scales (besides human-scale) are now available to us through the power of instruments that extend our senses.

2. show me the logic that says apparently random events must be caused.

3. what else besides randomness could provide an escape from pure cause-effect predictability?

4. I prefer a world in which the future is not "carved in stone". I realize that may not be the world I'm in. But to our best knowledge, some things are not predictable.

 

[Sayre]

Hmm modal collapse?

 

[Chesterton]

1. many other scales (besides human-scale) are now available to us through the power of instruments that extend our senses.

The human mind must still interpret the data, and always will have to.

2. show me the logic that says apparently random events must be caused.

Well I'm not a logician, but I can show you some philosophy and poetry.

3. what else besides randomness could provide an escape from pure cause-effect predictability?

Something outside of our universe; something supernatural, something unmeasurable and untestable. Of course then, strictly speaking, it would still be caused, but it would/could be unpredictable to us.

4. I prefer a world in which the future is not "carved in stone". I realize that may not be the world I'm in. But to our best knowledge, some things are not predictable.

I see 3 options:

1. Your "preference" is a sort of illusion, because our brains are composed of the same subatomic particles you speak of, which means your perceived preference is merely a random event which could have been otherwise;

2. Your "preference" cannot be a preference, because preference implies choice, and if the particles are operating under cause-and-effect since the Big Bang, then there's no such thing as choice. (Just as when some atheists speak of people like me having a "God gene".); or

3. You actually have a free will to prefer or choose, which is a sort of randomness, but which, like QM, is a scientifically and logically inexplicable phenomenon.