RE: How flexible is the principle of causality?
March 14, 2014 at 6:25 am
(This post was last modified: March 14, 2014 at 7:06 am by Alex K.)
(March 14, 2014 at 5:13 am)Pickup_shonuff Wrote: Generally, I think of causality in these terms: the present variables are the summation of all past variables. If any of those past variables were to be slightly altered, the present summation would also be slightly altered. So everything is interconnected by the specific causal mechanisms of Newtonian physics that precede, at least on the macroscopic level. I don't even want to begin to speculate at what level quantum indeterminacy ceases to be relevant.
Anyway, would that be a correct overview? In other words, all chemical reactions are limited to a set reproducible outcomes if the specific conditions in which the atoms "exchange greetings" are met? Or is this where indeterminacy comes into play?
Hmm, hard to tell. In some instances, you will get near deterministic outcomes, in others, they remain a chance event, it depends on the situation, on the system you study. Whether and when a chemical reaction between two particular atoms or molecules happens is probably probabilistic akin to a tunneling process. Which ones can occur, and how likely each is, seems to be fixed.
The problem I have about neglecting tiny quantum uncertainties is that in combination with chaos, the quantum effects get blown up to macroscopic proportions rather quickly, this killing off determinism at macroscopic scales in such systems.
