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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ManyMoose who wrote (3906)	6/29/2001 12:45:20 AM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

A deterministic system is one in which reactions follow actions in a definite way. Newton's laws are such a system. Because of chaos and the lack of observational skills it may not be possible to calculate the next state of the system, for example there is no exact formula to define the orbital behavior of more than 2 objects. But even if we don't and can't know the exact effect of actions, in a deterministic system the outcome is certain none the less. In a deterministic system the future is the sum of the past even if we don't know what that future is. A non-deterministic system is random within bounds. Truly random, not just overly complicated, a cause does not actually lead to an exact effect, only a probability of effect. In such a system there is free will, the ability to actually shape the future in a way that was not foretold by past events. There are other implications and differences between a deterministic universe and a non-deterministic one. TP