Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA19376 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 2 Apr 2001 15:57:42 +0100 Message-ID: <3AC8928E.9E5D799B@bioinf.man.ac.uk> Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2001 15:54:06 +0100 From: Chris Taylor <Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk> Organization: University of Manchester X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Determinism References: <20010402143447.AAA16167@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
I think I am forced to be a determinist (ho ho)...
How much of an effect does the quantum have on the everyday? I ask
because if I ignore quantum stuff, I can see no other input to a system
than well-behaved molecules etc. obeying well-understood laws; so given
perfect knowledge of the system, you can determine its future states
n'est ce pas?
Therefore, if I had perfect knowledge of the full (and I *mean* full)
state of a mind, and its environment, I could perfectly predict
behaviour (and indeed must therefore have no choice myself, only the
illusion of choice due to the multiplicity of finely divided options).
After all, complexity theory is about the best approximation to a system
you cannot gain perfect knowledge of, but if I knew *everything* (I mean
too much to ever be able to get) about a complex system I could predict
it, couldn't I?
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Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
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