Puzzled About Galactic Collisions

[cronus]

If galaxies collide over millions of years and can still be predicted then doesn't this mean ordinary every day events must be in some sense be fixed and utterly predictable? Afterall this ordinary day to day time we all know is a subset of a larger scene and that will never meaningfully deviate?

[PsychoSerenity]

If galaxies collide over millions of years and can still be predicted then doesn't this mean ordinary every day events must be in some sense be fixed and utterly predictable? Afterall this ordinary day to day time we all know is a subset of a larger scene and that will never meaningfully deviate?

In some sense fixed? Yes
Utterly predictable? No
Because: Physics.

[cronus]

If galaxies collide over millions of years and can still be predicted then doesn't this mean ordinary every day events must be in some sense be fixed and utterly predictable? Afterall this ordinary day to day time we all know is a subset of a larger scene and that will never meaningfully deviate?

In some sense fixed? Yes
Utterly predictable? No
Because: Physics.

Invoking God?

[laklak]

Yes, all is predestined. So don't worry, whatever you did isn't your fault.

[cronus]

Yes, all is predestined. So don't worry, whatever you did isn't your fault.

Confirms a intuition.

[PsychoSerenity]

Yes, all is predestined. So don't worry, whatever you did isn't your fault.

Confirms a intuition.

But don't think that therefore your "choices" don't have consequences or make no difference. - That's the important difference between fatalism and determinism.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

A billards game proves the same thing to a large extent as galactic collisions.

[cronus]

A billards game proves the same thing to a large extent as galactic collisions.

That covers both deep time and shallow so where does uncertainty reside?

[mistermack]

It's probably much easier to predict the overall behaviour of a huge football crowd, than to predict what one single fan will do when he's full of beer.

Similarly, when you predict how galaxies will collide, you're only talking about the overall interaction. Not how individual planets and moons might move, or how their climates might be affected.

[cronus]

It's probably much easier to predict the overall behaviour of a huge football crowd, than to predict what one single fan will do when he's full of beer.

Similarly, when you predict how galaxies will collide, you're only talking about the overall interaction. Not how individual planets and moons might move, or how their climates might be affected.

Just a lack of data? If you had known the guy full of beer since high school you'd probably know he was going home to sleep it off rather than pick a fight?

[Jason]

Fucking determinism. How does it work?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

A billards game proves the same thing to a large extent as galactic collisions.

That covers both deep time and shallow so where does uncertainty reside?

Neither is relevant to uncertainty.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

A billards game proves the same thing to a large extent as galactic collisions.

That covers both deep time and shallow so where does uncertainty reside?

Neither is relevant to uncertainty.

Uncertainty resides in the quantums - tricksy buggers quantums. Never trust a fucking quantum - just when you think it's going to pay back that photon you leant it, the bastard spends it on a higher energy level!

[cronus]

There must be something happens somewhere where the unloaded little dice are swapped for a much larger loaded one?

[Rum]

It would be interesting to explore the parallels between this and quantum versus Newtonian physics. The large, in Newtonian physics, is predictable but the tiny, as we know is all over the fuckin' shop. Like us.