The Ship of Theseus - The Deterministic Universe.
The Ship of Theseus and the theory that we live in a Deterministic Universe by Akos Braun
The Ship of Theseus
The Ship of Theseus is an ancient philosophical thought experiment from first century Greece by Plutarch, which was later extended upon by Thomas Hobbes.
Imagine, if you will, a sail ship, fresh out of drydock, flying on the waves of the ocean. But the seas are harsh and before you know it, the ship will need repairs. A plank here, a piece of sail there. Along the many years of service, parts of the ship wear out and repaired regularly, parts of the hull, the decks, a mast, etc. After a while there comes a time when the last original piece of the ship is replaced, right down to the very last board, nail and peg. Now, the question presents itself: Is it still the same ship?
It bears the same name, flies the same flag, looks the same in every way, but is it actually the same ship if none of it’s original building blocks remain? But wait, it gets worse: You own body does the same thing!
In the human body, cells die and replaced by mitosis of other nearby cells every day. If this goes on long enough, eventually all of your cells are replaced. In fact, this happens approx. every seven years! In just short of every decade, you are literally a new human. Now, your name is the same, you look the same (roughly), you feel the same, but…are you? At what point in this process do you become literally a different person? Or are you more than the sum of you parts? But what happens when the same parts of your sum get replaced over time? Let’s go even further…
Down at the molecular level, we are all the same. One carbon or hydrogen atom is indistinguishable from another of it’s kind, they are literally the same, they behave the same way, react the same way, everything. But if you are made of the same elementary building blocks, and I’m made of the same stuff as well, aren’t we essentially the same? Just more complicated Lego formations of the universe. And now, we’ve come to the real deal:
The Deterministic Universe Theory
If we go down the molecular level - or even further - things start to get weird. The same goes if we go wide and try to examine the universe at large. They say the longer you stare into the abyss, it will also stare back into you. The longer you study the elementary sciences, especially physics, more wild and hard questions emerge. Like, we know that our universe is governed by innumerable, immutable laws that influence why and how literally everything happens. Since Newton we know an object in motion will stay in motion unless it’s acted upon by a force of different direction and power. Well, if this law is true, then it is true for everything, right down to the smallest particle. But that presents us with something horrifying…
If particles themselves cannot act, but only react to external forces, like collisions with other particles, then literally everything our universe is deterministic. If the world is in fact governed by a set of ironclad laws that hasn’t changed and will not change, then we only need to put the game pieces on the board and we have everything.
In that case, predicting the future becomes as easy as calculating the speed and trajectory of every particle in the universe.
In simpler terms, if you knew the initial conditions of the universe and the rules it follows, you could, in principle, predict everything that has happened and will happen. In a deterministic universe random chance does not exist! Every event is causally necessitated by prior events, meaning every occurrence is a direct consequence of every event that came before, all governed by the laws of nature. It’s one moving particle hitting another particle, which changes it’s speed and direction in a predetermined way, which then hits another particle, and so on…
“But what does this mean to us (other than gambling becoming incredibly easy)?” you may ask. Well, if the carbon atom in your spleen is truly the same as one orbiting the star 61 Cygni B, then it has to answer to the same immutable laws of physics, meaning there is no free will! I know it’s kind of a huge leap in the chain of logic here, but think about it: if elemental particles truly behave the way it’s been laid down by centuries of research, governed by immutable laws that cannot be changed, then it follows that if we humans are made of the same stuff, we are part of this system, meaning our particles follow the same cause and effect principle. When it comes down to it, our bodies are nothing more than biochemical machines, reacting to outside stimuli, reacting predetermined ways based on past events. Everything you’ve done, everything you do is a result of your past, the events that shaped your life up until this point. Only that you’ve been under the assumption you’ve been acting on your own volition…
See, if we truly live in a deterministic universe, that means everything is deterministic, including all that you’ve done, you do, and will do at any given point in time. Not only that, but it’s measurable, calculable, which means with enough computing power, we can predict the future. And yes, this also means, that free will is merely an illusion and never existed. That all that you do, all that you are, have been decided long ago when our universe burst into existence. It’s just been millions upon millions of years of particles bumping into each other that lead you to sitting here, reading this wall of text and probably thinking “what nonsense, I am the master of my own fate”.
But….are you though?
Summary
This article explores two deeply unsettling scientific and philosophical concepts: the Ship of Theseus and the Deterministic Universe Theory, and then combines them to present a truly horrifying implication.
The Ship of Theseus: Questioning Identity
The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment that asks whether an object remains the same if all its original components are gradually replaced. The article extends this to the human body, noting that our cells are entirely replaced approximately every seven years. This leads to the disquieting question: if all your cells are replaced, are you still the same person? It further suggests that at a molecular level, all atoms of the same type are indistinguishable, implying that we are all just complex arrangements of the same fundamental building blocks.
The Deterministic Universe Theory: The Illusion of Free Will
The article then delves into the Deterministic Universe Theory, which posits that if the universe is governed by immutable physical laws and particles only react to external forces, then everything that happens is predetermined. In this view, if one knew the initial conditions of the universe, all past and future events could, in principle, be predicted. This theory suggests that random chance does not exist, and every event is a direct consequence of prior events.
The Horrifying Combination: No Free Will
The truly terrifying conclusion arises when these two concepts are combined: if we are made of the same fundamental particles that adhere to these immutable laws, then human free will is an illusion. Our bodies are essentially biochemical machines reacting in predetermined ways to stimuli, based on past events. This means every action we take, every thought we have, has been decided since the universe began, as a result of particles interacting in a predictable chain of cause and effect.
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