Invisible wrote:
> Sabrina Kilian wrote:
> 
>> Physics has not, as far as I know,
>> proven that the universe is a completely deterministic place.
> 
> Um... wouldn't that be a non-falsifiable hypothesis?

No.

> You cannot *prove* that the universe is deterministic, or that it is 
> non-deterministic. If the universe is non-deterministic, then cause and 
> effect are unrelated and the very notion of "proof" is invalid. QED.

Not really. It depends on the ways in which it's nondeterministic. You can 
still have cause and effect yet have some effects with essentially no cause.

If *nothing* is caused, then yes, cause and effect are unrelated.

Someone pointed out that the idea that "time" is a forth dimension in which 
everything is static would mean there's really no cause and effect and 
there's no reason for something 5 seconds from now to look anything like it 
does now, but that's not *quite* true either.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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