Word: popper
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...Open Universe, philosopher Karl Popper searches for that crucial ingredient whose absence keeps us from reducing the world's problems to perturbations in an atom's trajectory...
Written 25 years ago--though only published last year--The Open Universe attacks Einstein's theory of determinism, which holds that with a sophisticated enough scientific approach, man can explain and predict all occurences. But the argument only rarely appears dated. Popper proves that classical theory can never fulfill the objectives of the traditional philosophers--from Spinoza, Hobbes and Hume to Kant, Schopenhauer, and J.S. Mill--because it lends itself, through inaccuracy, to randomness and unpredictability. In this way, he buttresses quantum theory, which incorporates randomness as a principle. Einstein had often attacked this with his famous "God does...
...breaking down a system into smaller, more easily solved physics problems, the proponents of determinism expected--in theory, anyway--that they could solve all of those equations and figure out what is going to happen next. Popper squarely attacks this view. First, he says we cannot know any initial conditions exactly--merely to some arbitrary precision. Since we have no way to tell how accurately we must know the measurements for a prediction of specified accuracy, we cannot always make the right prediction. Popper says a theory must be "accountable"--able to explain its shortcomings--to be completely deterministic...
...Popper amplifies his position with numerous other arguments. Foremost of these is the famous "three-body problem" of classical physics: No exact solution exists for the equations describing the motion of systems which contain three or more particles--even if the initial conditions can be known exactly, our prediction must still be an estimate. Classical physics is not accountable and therefore does not imply determinism, Popper argues...
...almost half of the 100 minutes of playing time the puck remained in front of the goal creases. Harvard had difficulty clearing the bigger Terriers from in front of the net, while on offense the Crimson were able to popper the Terrier goal with shots and countering passes...