I have never been able to get my head around the idea that the causal chain fizzles out into quantum randomness. A state where things happen for no reason.
I came across this article which, I think, goes contrary to the idea that the causal chain somehow ends at the quantum level. Am I reading this correctly? Does the universe make sense after all?
quote:The neutron scattering experiments conducted with a mixture of ortho and para hydrogen showed that a number of forbidden transitions from the para-H2 ground state were systematically absent from the resultant spectra. This confirmed the existence of a molecular selection rule, a discovery which runs counter to the widely held view that such molecular compounds are not subject to any selection rules.
If we consider 'Brane theory and additional dimensions, is it not feasible that quantum randomness is actually a multi-dimensional phenomena that appears random in our sector?
It's turtles all the way down ...
I always thought that randomness was only a reflection on our ability to predict and not a condition where things happened without a cause. I can't find the posts but I am sure that cavediver and CatSci have told me that there is a randomness to quantum mechanics that has nothing to do with our lack of information. Brownian motion and virtual particles come to mind. Also NoNukes was stating unequivocally that particle decay is random even though the rate is predictable. I forget which thread that was in, maybe the one about absolute truth.
So yes it makes good sense to me that causality goes all the way down but I have been told to ignore my sensibilities in this case.
Thanks Dr A. I don't pretend to understand more than a fraction of what they are saying but I get a general feel for it. I really fixed on this statement;
quote:The de Broglie wave has a macroscopical analogy termed Faraday wave.[2]
This led me to surmise that the theory states that the universe behaves like the water in this video.
At the most fundamental level things do just happen without causes.
God wills it!
I guess that it bothers me because for everything else in the universe -
quote:When viewed in an inertial reference frame, an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by an external force.
I would say that things acting without cause would be a good example of supernatural behaviour.
If only we could calculate the probability that someone would spontaneously arrive, without motive, and produce such a thing then we could know for certain that we can't be sure.