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Determinism
A century ago, quantum physics overthrew our view of a deterministic Universe. A profound 21st century theorem closes the door even further.
The very word "quantum" makes people's imaginations run wild. But chances are you've fallen for at least one of these myths.
Neuroscience isn’t dissolving philosophy’s hardest problems — it’s forcing us to rethink where they live.
9mins
“The universe clicks along in perfect accord with the laws of physics forever.”
1hr 26mins
“I like to say that physics is hard because physics is easy, by which I mean we actually think about physics as students.”
There could be variables beyond the ones we've identified and know how to measure. But they can't get rid of quantum weirdness.
5mins
“When you think about this interconnection of all these tiny causes and effects which add up to the way the world unfolds, it becomes impossible to imagine that we have complete control.”
From bondage to freedom: Baruch Spinoza’s guide to the rational life.
1hr 36mins
"It's a true fact, but a bizarre one, that the reason why hundreds of thousands of people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki rather than Kyoto and Kokura, is because of a 19-year-old vacation and a passing cloud."
The Kalam cosmological argument asserts that everything that exists must have a cause, and the "first" cause must be God. Is that valid?
Do we actually live in a deterministic Universe, despite quantum physics? An alternative, non-spooky interpretation has now been ruled out.
3mins
Don’t fall into the determinism trap. Everything is, in fact, random, says chemist Lee Cronin:
No matter how good our measurement devices get, certain quantum properties always possess an inherent uncertainty. Can we figure out why?
A volley of new insights reignites the debate over whether our choices are ever truly our own.
Neural imaging has shown that the brain has “decided” what we’re going to do before we make a conscious choice — but is this even relevant to free will?
Who — or what — really controls your mind?
The double-slit experiment, hundreds of years after it was first performed, still holds the key mystery at the heart of quantum physics.
Experiments tell us quantum entanglement defies space and time.
To Einstein, nature had to be rational. But quantum physics showed us that there was not always a way to make it so.
The central equation of quantum mechanics, the Schrödinger equation, is different from the equations found in classical physics.
Quantum superposition challenges our notions of what is real.
The quantum world — and its inherent uncertainty — defies our ability to describe it in words.
For nearly a century, physicists have argued over how to interpret quantum physics. But reality exists independent of any interpretation.
The quantum world is one in which rules that are completely foreign to our everyday experience dictate bizarre behavior.
"All moments past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist."
6mins
Debates about the existence of free will traditionally have been fought by two competing camps: those who believe in free will and those who don’t because they believe the Universe […]
No matter how good our measurement devices get, certain quantum properties always possess an inherent uncertainty. Can we figure out why?
Quantum mechanics forces us to toss out the old, reliable ways in which we make sense of our everyday reality.
The game of Plinko perfectly illustrates chaos theory. Even with indistinguishable initial conditions, the outcome is always uncertain.