On Sun, Nov 24, 2024 at 11:01 PM Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote:
*>> the only way the universe could be deterministic, local and realistic >> is with Superdeterminism, but that theory is idiotic because it requires >> you to make quite literally an INFINITE number of assumptions.* > > *> It only requires that there be some initial condition and deterministic > evolution thereafter. Sounds just like Newtonian cosmology.* > *Every problem, not just in physics but in science in general, requires that there be SOME initial condition, but good theories will give you the right answer starting with lots of different initial conditions, Great theories will give you the right answer starting with ANY initial condition, and ridiculously bad theories, like superdeterminism, will only work if the universe started out in ONE very particular configuration. That sounds NOTHING like Newtonian cosmology! * *Every problem in Newtonian physics starts with some initial condition, but Newton can tell you how fast a ball will be after it rolls down an incline plank no matter how high it is at the top, what the angle of the plank is, or how fast the ball is already rolling at before it started going down the ramp. Superdeterminism would be like a rival theory that could correctly predict how fast the ball will be going at the bottom BUT only if the ball started out at 3.109 MPH, and the ramp was exactly 5.096 feet high, and it was set at an angle of 28.062 degrees, if the initial conditions were anything other than that it would make an incorrect prediction. * > *>> It's not even a scientific theory because if it's true then the >> scientific method itself would be of no help whatsoever in increasing >> your ontological or even epistemological knowledge. * > > > *> There would still be deterministic law-like evolution. * > *Maybe, maybe not, if superdeterminism is true there would be no way to ever know because the scientific method wouldn't work. The initial conditions of the universe could've been set up so that in 4004 BC non-biological purely geological processes created dinosaur bones, and living breathing dinosaurs never existed. And monkey and even human fossils could be common in Cambrian rock layers, but they have never been found and never will be found because the initial conditions of the universe were such that no paleontologist will ever decide to dig in the particular spots where those fossils are. * *And the initial conditions of the universe could have conspired to make us believe there were such a thing as "particle entanglement" because the angle 2 distant experimenters always choose to set their polarizer or Stern-Gerlach magnet at is NEVER random, they always picked angles that gave them a consistent but totally incorrect view of reality. * *Christian fundamentalist say God is lying to me, Superdeterminism fans say nature is lying to me. But I see no reason that my default assumption should be that somebody or something is lying to me. * * John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis>* 7bw -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv1UrEhB%3Dsj%2Bim%3DJf0QjxqKugVUrSU_bYCB-8nfGaiiV1g%40mail.gmail.com.
