Summary
- Pierre-Simon Laplace proposed the idea of an all-knowing “demon” that, with full knowledge of the present, could predict the future.
- Modern physics has revealed three limitations to predictability, with the newest being undecidability.
- In some systems, even an all-powerful demon with complete knowledge of the system’s state would be unable to fully grasp its future.
- A thought experiment from the 1990s established a physical system with a single moving part that exhibits undecidability.
- Recently, researchers have connected unknowable mathematical systems with an increasing number of physical ones.
- The undecidability doesn’t have practical implications since humans can’t interact with infinite systems.
- However, some argue that infinity and undecidability are essential aspects of our reality.
By Charlie Wood
Original Article