Ontology:Q22,28

1. S–22,28 (pronounced 22,28. (S))[S] (pronounced (S):)determinism (physics)1:-1:-1

duplication hint: copy or update fake Item from [[Special:PermanentLink/10503|Q22,28]]

Core characteristics

item type

S1:-1:-1

[P] (pronounced P:) label [string] (L)

S–22,28 (pronounced 22,28. (S))[S] (pronounced (S):)determinism (physics)1:-1:-1

E:determinism (physics)

[P] (pronounced P:) alias (en) [string]

lambda-calculus determinism

mathematical function determinism

necessity (process of individual things being determined by laws of behavior and surrounding conditions)

QID (pronounced Q.I.D.) references [Item]1:-1:-1

--

shares thematic block [Item] (BB)1:-1:-1

--

field, scope, or group [Item]

--

case of [Item]

--

Wavebuilder combinations

[P] (pronounced P:) Wavebuilder (pronounced Wave-builder): forms result [Item]

--

along with [Item]

--

forming from [Item]

--

--

--

Wavebuilder characterizations

Wavebuilder (pronounced Wave-builder): route [Item]

--

along with [Item]

--

forming from [Item]

--

--

--

Background

Between philosophy and the sciences, the word "determinism" can refer to very different things. Philosophy typically assumes that determinism is a question which cannot be empirically characterized and things must be described as determined or un-determined before there is any theory of how to know that. Mathematics and physics have more fine-grained ways of describing determinism. For any specific object, such as a twenty-sided die, it is possible to use mathematics to enumerate how predictable or unpredictable the object is. For instance, one could roll a die to write down a sequence of numbers and term the sequence of numbers pseudo-random. The real die is actually random, but read the same set of die results over and over starting over at the beginning, and the term that would come to mind is that it is simply uncorrelated on a statistical plot or line graph of numbers in the same sense a pseudo-random number generator is. Another way to mathematically characterize the die would be to create a detailed physics model of an plastic icosahedron falling onto a table, such that it would be possible to render a die coming up randomly as a computer-generated image. This model would not tell you exactly what face your die will land on, but it would have a lot to say about the general process of any die landing on any face. This "Blender model" is the kind of determinism this entry is meant to describe. "Lambda-calculus determinism" is the concept of a mathematical function that specifies the overall process of how something happens and produces a result, randomized or not, but does not specify what result is going to happen to any specific, unique real-world object without knowing the initial conditions of that object.

Within lambda calculus, this mathematical-function-style determinism is the process used to define all mathematical functions and all operators, and effectively reconstruct all of math. To define "2 + 2", lambda calculus first defines what "2" is and then what "+" is: "2" remains "2" when it passes through an identity function, the natural number "2" is a set of "1s (pronounced ones)" incremented from each other, "1" can be exclusively defined as as an identity function incremented into one, and "plus" can be trickily defined as incrementing a lot of ones repeatedly. Everything in lambda calculus conceptually comes from functions, including variables; a basic identity function gives the ability to add variables to all functions.

In this sense, it is possible to conceptualize all of math and all of physics through the lens of lambda calculus. Even the most complicated physics equation is ultimately one big pile of functions, and thus, without any requirement to be able to predict every die roll or the entire development of the whole universe, every physics equation is formed out of mathematical determinism.

Outside mathematics — for instance, within Marxist philosophy — this concept of limited determinism may be referred to as "necessity". Necessity refers to general observations that causal factors and processes within the material world lead to partially predictable results. Nonetheless, you may see traditional philosophers oppose "necessity" against "freedom" exactly the way they do with "determinism", partly due to the problem that philosophy does not understand the difference between absolute and limited determinism. This is nonsense. This is not considered a problem in meta-Marxism, where general-sense historical materialism makes use of relativistic determinism to bridge the gap between the observed physical world and localized seas of seemingly-deterministic objects. Seemingly-indeterministic quantum processes are the substrate for predictable, traditionally-deterministic Newtonian processes. To some extent it can be argued that "determinism" and "indeterminism" are actually the same indistinguishable thing, and it is only the arbitrary labels that individual perceiving humans put onto physics that make any of this confusing. Lambda calculus and mathematical functions are helpful tools for making this concept clearer, because they show how a process can be predictable overall despite random elements going into it and altering the outcome.

Aliases and labels

English (en)

• determinism (physics)
• determinism (mathematics)
• necessity (mathematics) - 必然論 (ja)
• lambda-calculus determinism
• lambda calculus style determinism
• mathematical function determinism
• necessity (process of individual things being determined by laws of behavior and surrounding conditions)

日本語 (ja)

• 必然論（数学）

Labels

[P] (pronounced P:) alias (en) [string]

S–22,28 (pronounced 22,28. (S))[S] (pronounced (S):)determinism (physics)1:-1:-1

[P] (pronounced P:) alias (ja) [string]

S–22,28 (pronounced 22,28. (S))[S] (pronounced (S):)必然論 (数学)1:-1:-1