Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Most physics theories are deterministic, with the notable exception of quantum mechanics which, however, comes plagued by the so-called measurement problem. In such a case, scientific determinism would only be an illusion due to the timeless mathematical language scientists use.
To investigate this possibility it is necessary to develop an alternative mathematical language that is both powerful enough to allow scientists to compute predictions and compatible with indeterminism and the passage of time.
We suggest that intuitionistic mathematics provides such a language and we illustrate it in simple terms. Physicists are not used to thinking of the world as indeterminate and its evolution as indeterministic. Some view this state of affairs as the paradigmatic signature of scientific rigor. Accordingly, indeterminism could only be a weakness due, for instance, to an incomplete description of the situation. There are essentially two kinds of common objections to the above determinsitic worldview.
First, not all evolution equations one encounters in physics have a unique solution for all initial conditions. These cases are fairly contrived and exceptional, but still worth remembering when colleagues claim that determinism is obvious. Second, there is quantum physics, which is generally presented as intrinsically indeterministic. Actually, one can even prove the existence of quantum randomness from two highly plausible assumptions: physical distances exist nothing jumps arbitrarily fast from here to there , 1 and no super-determinism no combination of determinism and conspiracy, i.
But this quantum indeterminism is immediately associated with difficulties. I address quantum indeterminacy in appendix A. But allow me to straightforwardly continue with my main motivation. I have always been amazed by the huge difficulties that my fellow physicists seem to encounter when contemplating indeterminism and the highly sophisticated circumlocutions they are ready to swallow to avoid the straightforward conclusion that physics does not necessarily present us a deterministic worldview.
