Theoretically you could predict the future of the universe if you knew exactly where each particle in the univ

Question

This is my friend Seth's question on "the meaning of life".

Answer 1

Depends on what kind of predictions you want to make. The principle you refer to is known as determinism and was considered by Laplace. However the advent of quantum mechanics gives us an inherent uncertainty which breaks apart determinism. However it is thought that determinism may yet hold on a macro scale. So you may as well try and predict the motion of celestial bodies, etc. in this spirit.

If you want to predict the behaviour of people and societies you need something like psychohistory as explained in Asimov's Foundation series.

Answer 2

Maybe you should ask the one who created the universe. He probably knows the future of each particle.

Edit..What I'm saying is that you'd HAVE to be God to know where each particle is.

Answer 3

chaos theory, as applied to particles contained within the üniverse", would render any knowledge of where each particle was at any given time redundant in less than a nano-second, thus the "predictability theory" of your friend would be impossible to apply. there are other factors involved in particle science that would also render such a theory unworkable.

Answer 4

True according to Newtonian mechanics,

but under the rules of quantum physics, you can never know the exact position of each particle, and therefore you could never predict the future (assuming quantum mechanics is correct).

Answer 5

Can your brain memorize and theorize it all ?

Answer 6

If you knew where every particle was, where it has been and the direction it is traveling you might have a head start on what the immediate future would hold, but unless this knowledge was constantly updated its relevance would fade very quickly.

"What if" games have a short shelf life.