Steve. The difference between you and me is only in definition. When I call probability a 'law', there is no one to one relationship. However, there are still some 'certainty' elements in it. Otherwise, the quantum mechanics would have to be dumped. Anthony
--- On Mon, 4/4/11, SteveW <[email protected]> wrote: From: SteveW <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Zen] Why bother with Zazen? Better a Roulette To: [email protected] Date: Monday, 4 April, 2011, 9:46 PM --- In [email protected], Anthony Wu <wuasg@...> wrote: > > Steve, > Â > I read one of the links you provided to Mike. The other failed to open > anything. The argument in the book is like I say: when probability rules, > tossing a coin a million times will give you approximately 500,000 heads and > 500,000 tails. That means there is still a law (of probability), and it is > well addressed in the book you refer to. If chaos rules, you are not sure > whether you will get 1 head and 999,999 tails or something like that. That is > the difference between rules and no rules, or deterministic (in a probability > way) and completely chaotic. > Â > Anthony > Â Hi Anthony. I am amazed that you continue to use this word, "Law". It must be some mental habit from Catholic school. When we speak of the Law of Gravity, what we are really referring to is what objects usually do when dropped. You continue to think about probability in the way that classical Newtonian physics addressed it. In classical physics, probability just refers to not being able to know all of the causal factors determining any event. According to that paradigm, if we knew all off the factors in a dice-toss, we could, in theory, predict exactly what number would come up. I am not talking about butterflies flapping their wings and generating hurricanes. If you re-read the first article carefully, you will see that the author understands this. There is no strict chain of unbroken cause-and-effect! Quantum probability, as opposed to classical Newtonian probability, means that some events really do happen without a deterministic cause. The Quantum probability is that, when I drop a stone, it will fall to the ground. But there is a slight, but non-zero, chance that it will sprout wings and fly! Nobody understands this, including me. Steve > > > > >
