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Version 3
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Questioning the Mechanistic-Universe Paradigm Using Chaotic Systems
Version 1
: Received: 29 July 2023 / Approved: 1 August 2023 / Online: 2 August 2023 (04:20:10 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 17 August 2023 / Approved: 18 August 2023 / Online: 18 August 2023 (11:23:32 CEST)
Version 3 : Received: 5 September 2023 / Approved: 6 September 2023 / Online: 6 September 2023 (11:14:32 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 17 August 2023 / Approved: 18 August 2023 / Online: 18 August 2023 (11:23:32 CEST)
Version 3 : Received: 5 September 2023 / Approved: 6 September 2023 / Online: 6 September 2023 (11:14:32 CEST)
How to cite: Knoll, Y. Questioning the Mechanistic-Universe Paradigm Using Chaotic Systems. Preprints 2023, 2023080137. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202308.0137.v3 Knoll, Y. Questioning the Mechanistic-Universe Paradigm Using Chaotic Systems. Preprints 2023, 2023080137. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202308.0137.v3
Abstract
We humans are natural-born engineers. As such, we model after machines not only isolated, naturally occurring systems, but also the basic laws of physics, sharing with machines a local-evolution-of-state `grammar'. However, previous work by the author casts doubt upon this mechanistic paradigm, suggesting that it is to blame for the stubbornness of many open problems in physics. Simple experiments are therefore proposed to identify `non-machines'. In one experiment, `non mechanistic correlations' in the spirit of Bell are sought in a pair of separated but previously coupled (macroscopic) chaotic systems. In another it is tested whether chaotic systems could fuzzily `remember their future' in the sense that a future binary perturbation applied to them could be inferred from their present behavior with probability>1/2. Chaotic systems are chosen as candidates because the long-time application of their (deterministic) mechanistic description is conceptually groundless: All scales are significant and mutually coupled in that regime, down to scales governed by QM, yet the quantum-classical transition remains inexplicable---if only due to the measurement problem. Similarly for so-called non-deterministic chaotic systems, modeled as such purely for defying a short-time deterministic mechanistic description. Should a non mechanistic signature be found in such simple systems, the implications for science as a whole and life sciences in particular cannot be overstated.
Keywords
foundations of physics; chaos; block-universe; quantum-classical transition
Subject
Physical Sciences, Quantum Science and Technology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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