I was doing a little stand up philosophy the other day and I came up with a rather odd presupposition. It was odder than the fact that Joel, creator of the Secrets of the Universe, is getting married. In fact, it was odder than the fact that I was even thinking of asking Joel if he was engaged yet. If I keep going in this direction, then I will surely forget what I was going to tell you all about in this text.

There is a model of the universe that I sometimes use when examining some false premises. That model is a book. You see, there are rules of spelling, punctuation, grammar and even layout that determine the layout of a book. The letters on the page could be seen as a form of sudoku puzzle that solves a very complex equation. This would allow large quantities of text to materialize on the page heuristically and without the input of a writer.

So, why does this not happen? My question was, “what if the reason that we cannot predict behavior within some complex systems is that there is a non-deterministic element involved?” You flip a coin and it will go so high in the air, flipping a fixed number of times per second, from a starting point, until it is captured again. With all of the factors in hand, you could calculate the side that the coin would land on. We just lack that amount of data.

My book model would produce pages of text. The words would be properly spelled, punctuated and laid out to perfection. Grammar would take care of the order that the words would be in. Unfortunately, the result would also be just so much gibberish.

What the model lacks is meaning. Meaning is not heuristically determined. Would it be possible that, given all the data and rules involved, no computer would ever be able to calculate the results of a system like the stock exchange because there is a higher order factor involved which is beyond anything that we can understand on our own? Could the universe be driven by a non-deterministic force?

We have been conditioned to believe that the whole mechanism of the universe is open to our examination and understanding. What if that is just our ego talking? If all you have is a hammer, then every problem seems to be a nail. I am wondering if our ability to understand the universe is a property of the universe that we are incapable of understanding.

Determinism is a very simple belief system. Nothing in the universe can ever behave unexpectedly. It is a comforting thought that the universe is at our fingertips and beneath us. Yet, the universe does unexpected things. What if the universe is not what we think that it is?

This entry was posted on Monday, June 18th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Mulligan Adventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.