Meditations and Learnings

Meditations and Learnings

The Quantum Problem with Laplace's Demon

Laplace posited that if this demon knows the precise location and momentum of every atom in the universe it could use the laws of Physics to predict and retrodict all values for those atoms, and therefore the state of the universe at any given moment in time.
While I would not refute the truth that free will does not enter into this picture I would have to contest the notion that the prediction could take place due to the reality of quantum randomness. If the clock were rewound we cannot say for sure that events that take place on a quantum level would be held constant, and subsequently that everything would go the same way.
That being said, I think it is very cool that the mathemetician Pierre-Simon Laplace already knew over 200 years ago that there was no room for “liberterian free will”.