The End of Determinism 

In Part VI, we looked at the scientific revolution. We saw that the perfect storm of the Reformation, the rise of capitalism, and the scientific revolution would lead to 400 years of mechanism and determinism. It is doubtful that without this 400 year period, we would have none of the medical and technological advances that we enjoy today. However we also saw that these advancements came with a great price, the loss of privacy, the loss of individuality, and many other costs too numerous to mention. 

We also saw that this period would lead us to other experiences such as Victorianism, the Industrial Revolution, colonialism with its accompanying missionary movement, and two World Wars (I am considering writing another series about these periods). 

What is determinism? It is the belief that every event happens because something else caused it. In the case of science, there are natural laws that determine what happens when one follows them. If I let go of a stone, natural law says that gravity will cause it to fall. Cause and effect rule our world. 

The universe is a machine and there is no randomness or variation from these laws. Newton’s laws were so successful and so deterministic that for many centuries they accounted for everything that happened. Newton’s three laws could accurately predict the orbits and locations around the sun, the path of projectiles, and the schedule of the ocean’s tides. 

You should also know that while Newton’s laws worked well for things like planets, they only worked if the number of objects being studied was two. More than two planets or their satellites created extraneous factors that threw off Newton’s calculations.

Again, the belief was that if one knew all the laws of nature, one could predict the future. If predictions failed as they often did, the failures could be blamed on the fact that we didn’t know all the natural laws yet. 

Although there is much more that could be said about this, we want to move on to the beginning of the twentieth century. 

Around that time, physicists discovered many strange things. Essentially, they discovered quantum physics. They discovered strange new worlds where the old concepts of atoms with protons, electrons and neutrons were replaced with sub-atomic particles such as quarks, anti-protons, and other elementary particles. They also discovered that it would be impossible to measure both the position and the momentum of these particles. One could measure one or the other but not both.

Thus, determinism was replaced with uncertainly. The old laws that ruled the universe were no longer applicable. If you want more information and clarity about this concept, google the double split experiment.

One important outcome of this was that Einstein’s law that nothing can exceed the speed of light was overthrown. In the 1980s, Bell theorized that particles seem to be in constant communication with each other even if they were located at the far ends of the universe. In other words, if you change the spin of one electron, the corresponding electron will change its spin even if the are at the opposite ends of the universe. His theories have been confirmed in recent years. 

Another discovery was that to observe phenomena was to change it. In 1935, Erwin Schrodinger designed an imaginary thought experiment. He imagined a cat sealed in a box. There is a radioactive element in the box as well. Within one hour, the element either decays or it does not. If the material breaks down, it will release a gas that will kill the cat. The question is: at the end of an hour, is the cat dead or alive? Schrodinger says as long as the box is sealed, the cat is either dead or alive or neither or both according to quantum physics. The cat’s situation is uncertain. The only way to know the condition of the cat is to open the box. The probability of the cat being either dead or alive is 50%. 

In other words, until we observe the phenomena being measured, the truth of a situation is unknown. The only way to know the truth of a situation is to observe it. At the moment of observation, the probability wave collapses. But by opening the box, we are affecting the experiment. Therefore, we may not get the correct answer. According to quantum mechanics, since we can't see in the box to know if the cat is alive or dead, the cat is both alive and dead.

In short, the universe is far more weird and strange than anyone could have predicted before the twentieth century.