I don’t understand this concept of “chaos” in a universe governed by physics.
Just because something is nearly infinitely complicated, doesn’t mean predicting outcomes would be actually impossible. If the universe produces the outcome, doesn’t that mean it’s following a rule set?
Do I fundamentally not understand chaos theory?
In: 4
Chaos theory simply states “in certain systems small differences escalate to big differences” nothing more nothing less.
But the assessment “that means predicting the future is impossible” is also correct. To simulate physics forward in time we’d not only need all the details, we’d need them with infinite precision.
For example to predict the weather perfectly it isn’t enough to know the current temperature, you need it exact with infinite digits behind the decimal point. And then you need infinite measurements in space, knowing it’s 1 degree less a kilometer to the left isn’t enough, knowing it’s 0.0000001 degrees less a micrometer to the left also isn’t enough.
How chaotic a system is creates a finite horizon of predictability based on how precise you measure, because every error will grow exponentially. And every finite precision will lead to a finite time you can look into the future.
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