Is The Future Already Set In Stone?

the scene a typical courtroom a jury of

12 looks on the defendant accused of a

terrible crime sits slumped in his chair

distraught his lawyer however is oddly

confident ladies and gentlemen of the

jury I will not stand here and try and

defend my client by saying that he did

not commit these

crimes indeed he did the evidence is

indisputable but you should find my

client not guilty because ultimately he

is not responsible for his

actions you see my client grew up in a

struggling family in a rough

neighborhood he fell in with a bad crowd

he didn't get a proper education he was

exposed to Crime at an early age and why

was his family in this situation his

great-grandparents came to that rough

neighborhood as refugees from a

devastating war that war was triggered

by a series of droughts and the droughts

were caused by an unusual change in

ocean currents which in turn was caused

by a slight change in the sun's

brightness over those years of course we

all know that the sun is powered by

Fusion reactions and the rate of those

Fusion reactions is determined by the

Sun's mass the sizes and types of stars

that are born within the Milky Way

galaxy is determined by its size and the

number of merges it goes through and we

can trace the origins of the Milky Way

galaxy to a few hydrogen atoms existing

within the first first 15 minutes of the

Big Bang the laws of physics tell us how

these hydrogen atoms began interacting

with each other eventually sewing the

seeds of the Milky Way and its neighbors

leading to the formation of the sun

leading to the drought leading to my

client's unfortunate

circumstances ladies and gentlemen of

the jury my client is not at fault

because we can trace the origins of his

circumstances and his actions all the

way back to the beginning of the

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universe smiling the lawyer sits back

down convinced that he has won the case

but as he looks across the bench to his

opposition he sees a broad smile on

their face

too what are they

planning the prosecution stands to

deliver their

response ladies and gentlemen of the

jury the defense relies on a

philosophical position known as causal

determinism a belief that everything has

a cause and we can trace those causes

with the laws of

physics but it is not quite that simple

the laws of physics as we currently

understand them do not always allow us

to confidently predict an outcome Chaos

Theory scatters predictions for most

systems one can no more predict the

weather a week from now let alone the

life story of a human being as well as

this the fuzzy probabilities of quantum

mechanics mean that nothing is truly

certain perfectly predicting the

behavior of atoms within the Sun for

example is simply impossible and even

putting those Mysteries aside the

mysteries of Consciousness and how the

brain works muddies the water even

further your honor we cannot predict

anything free will survives the

defendant had a

choice the prosecution sits and the

judge is left open-mouthed and baffled

it seems not only is the defendant on

trial but the nature of Free Will

itself who is

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right there are roughly the same amount

of neurons in your brain as stars in the

Milky Way about 86 billion the mind is

complex and free will or not we all

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YouTube

imagine for a moment a superintelligent

being far wiser and more capable than

any human so vastly removed from our own

abilities that we can scarcely

comprehend it this being isn't just

intelligent but also observant it can

see and record the current position and

velocity of every single atom in the

entire universe a water molecule

floating in the androma the Galaxy a

silicon atom buried thousands of miles

under the ground a sodium ion pushing to

and fro in your cerebral

cortex nothing can escape this being's

notice and attention it has perfect

knowledge of the state of every single

thing and this superintelligent being is

also armed with another tool a complete

knowledge of physics gravity electricity

magnetism heat and more are all at its

disposal this being has in a sense a

perfect understanding of the way nature

works the being can therefore put its

knowledge of these laws into practice

knowing the state of every particle in

the universe equips the being with the

ability to tell the future by applying

the laws of physics to the motion and

behavior of every atom the being will

know exactly with ultimate Precision

where those atoms will go what they'll

do next and how they'll Act and the

being can repeat this again again

advancing forward in time allowing it to

predict with utter certainty the

entirety of the future of the

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universe this being can see the chain of

Coen effect stretching through the eons

it will see the future laid out before

it from the microscopic to the cosmic it

will see stars grow old and die it will

see galaxies merge it will see new

planets form and life life arise it will

see the causes behind the emergence of

intelligent creatures creatures who

believe that they are acting of their

own free will able to make choices as

they please but the being will see that

these creatures are fooling

themselves every future act every choice

every decision every effect can be

clearly seen by the superintelligent

being as clearly as we can see the

past known as class's demon after its

originator Pierre Simone llas this

thought experiment is the ultimate

expression of a philosophical concept

known as causal

determinism in this view which had

gathered momentum in the Years leading

up to lass's publication in

1771 every effect to occur throughout

the cosmos is preceded by a cause which

in turn are preceded by their own causes

all following the laws of nature in an

unbroken chain going back to the

beginning of the universe in other words

every single future act and movement

from all entities in the universe is

already determined already decided

before it happens the past and present

state of the universe dictates through

the laws of nature what the future will

be like it's just causes and effects

going on forever there is no way to

escape it no way to change it the future

is already set in stone

the plas wasn't the first scientist to

put forward the notion of causal

determinism especially in such blunt

terms indeed lass's own thoughts were

inspired by the work of earlier