Novelty...
T:
"When I spoke of a playful, creative nature. I was indeed implying the
existence of an organizing principle, of the sort envisaged by Spinoza and
Einstein. That said, you mustn't think that quantum theory overemphasizes pure
chance. There's still a lingering determinism within the theory. Individual
quantum events can't be determined, but probabilities for sets of events can be
accurately forecast using the laws of statistics. For example, while we can't
calculate an electron's precise trajectory, we can calculate the probability of
its being at any given point. It's this vestigial determinism that allows our
computers and stereos to work. If everything in their electrical circuits was
random, then they wouldn't function. As for chaotic phenomena in the solar
system, we can't predict the motion of the planets for periods of over several
tens of millions of years (i.e., less than 1 percent of the age of the
universe). All the same, they have quietly continued orbi
ting around the Sun for the last four and a half billion years because,
although the probability that their orbits will become chaotic isn't zero, it
is extremely low. Does Buddhism agree with this notion of bounded
unpredictability?
M:
"In Buddhism, neither pure chance nor necessity can be accepted; they are
two extremes, and neither of them stands up to analysis. No effect can be
causeless. On the contrary, there are so many causes that it's impossible to
come up with a linear, deterministic analysis of causality. Strict determinism
holds only where there is a finite number of factors in the cause-and-effect
relationship. But, in the global system, there is an undetermined number of
elements involved, including consciousness. A system like that necessarily
escapes absolute determinism and transcends the powers of discursive thought.
Novelty can thus emerge from synergy without having to be explained by a
limited number of causes or pure chance, that is to say the absence of any
cause."
'Mathieu Ricard & Trinh Xuan Thuan, 'The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to
the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet',pp.153-154)
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