Determinism & Chaos Theory

Can we predict the future? Theoretically, yes. Let me explain. I believe that everything happens for a reason. An event happens for a reason. This is simple logic, with me so far?

An event is determined by a chain of prior occurrences and the factors that revolve around the occurrences. Imagine an entity that knows all facts about the past and the present, and knows all natural laws that govern the universe. Such an entity may be able to use this knowledge to foresee the future with every detail.

But of course, would it be possible for such an entity to exist in the first place?

What about God? If he was omniscient, he would know how the universe will play out when he created it with certain properties. He would know how the universe would interact with itself and thus the events that would follow in the future.

If this were true, is there such thing as ‘free will’?

Had he created us and the universe differently, as in with different properties, future events would also be altered. Does this give him full control over our actions, regardless of time, and take away our ‘free will’?

To help you further understand, you can familiarize yourself with “Chaos Theory”.

Chaos Theory, states that “systems whose state evolves with time – that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of perturbations in the initial conditions, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future dynamics are fully defined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved. This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos. “Adapted from Wikipedia

It is also colloquially known as “The Butterfly Effect” through several different forms, let's take one for example, “A butterfly that flaps its wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas”. Do not take this literally, as the kinetic energy from the flapping of the butterfly’s wings cannot create a tornado. But have it haven’t flapped, wind patterns would have been altered causing a change in the trajectory path. A small change in the initial condition of the system causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events.


However another question arises, is it possible to identify all the factors discreetly? Absolute continuity. We describe and measure aspects of the universe in numbers. However can a number ever end? If not then it wouldn’t be possible to define the future as one cannot even define the past.