About the Methods for Computing the Future

Abstract

When discussing the consequences of the theory of quantum mechanics, Albert Einstein is said to have maintained that, “God doesn’t throw dice.” Others were convinced that the only acceptable interpretation of that theory required acceptance that there are elementary events which cannot be predicted accurately. Of course, Albert Einstein shared the conviction that mankind will never be in a position to predict the future. However, he was convinced that the course of the world is determined completely by natural laws, although no one will ever be able to grasp all of these laws. In the terms of philosophy, the question is whether or not the world is causally determined. In simple language, we may ask, “Does the state of the world at a particular point in time imply that all future events are already completely determined?” If this were true, the actual configuration of all elementary particles in the universe would not only determine which football team will win the championship next year, but it would also determine that a murder which will happen twenty years from now is completely unavoidable and could not be prevented. In this case, the murderer could not be held responsible for what he did since he was only a victim of the laws of physics. I shall not discuss this issue any further, since it is enough for us to accept the fact that nobody can entirely predict the future, and that we must live with surprising events.