Chance in Physics, Computer Science and Philosophy: Chance as the Foundation of the World

Description

Chance is uncanny to us. We thought it didn't exist, that God or a reasonable explanation was behind everything. But we know today: It exists. We know that much of what surrounds us and which we do not see through, nevertheless runs causally. Unlike what was thought in the days of the Enlightenment, chance is the rule around us rather than lawful order. The clouds are stochastic fractals, the waves on the sea are pure random machinery. The philosopher Charles Peirce recognized the fundamental importance of chance in precisely this sense, even before quantum and chaos theory, and gave the doctrine its name: Tychism. Without chance there would be nothing new, no life, no creativity, no history. This book looks at chance from the perspective of physics, computer science, and philosophy. It spans from antiquity to quantum physics and shows that chance is firmly built into the world and that it would not exist without chance. This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Der Zufall in Physik, Informatik und Philosophie by Walter Hehl, published by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature in 2021. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors. Foreword Thanks to Contents Chapter 1: Introduction: A Brief History of Science and Coincidence 1.1 Ancient Science in today´s Light 1.1.1 The Science of Aristotle 1.1.2 The Ancient Atomists 1.1.3 Ancient Science Using Astronomy as an Example 1.2 The Scientific Enlightenment 1.2.1 The Enlightenment in the Natural Sciences 1.2.2 The Dawn of Information Technology 1.2.3 The End of the Enlightenment 1.3 Modern Science and Technology 1.3.1 Modern Physics and Chance 1.3.2 Information Technology and Mind 1.3.3 Summary of the Chapter References Chapter 2: The Coincidence Itself 2.1 The Right Word 2.2 Coincidence and Necessity: Introduction 2.2.1 Definition of Randomness 2.2.2 Causal Chains 2.2.3 Understanding with Chance: Astronomical 2.2.4 Chaotic 2.2.5 From Atomic Coincidence to Great Effect 2.2.6 From Single Random Event to Statistical Law 2.2.7 Entropy and Time 2.2.8 Summary of the Chapter References Chapter 3: The Natural Coincidence 3.1 Looking Correctly According to Mandelbrot 3.2 Taking a Closer Look in Everyday Life 3.2.1 The Normal Coincidence Around Us 3.2.2 Water Waves and Randomness 3.2.3 What Information Is around us? Coincidence or Plan? 3.2.4 Summary of the Chapter References Chapter 4: Understanding Zufall (Coincidences) in the World 4.1 Big Bang and the First and Second Coincidence 4.1.1 The Emergence of the World from a Vacuum 4.1.2 Anthropic Principle and Goldilock Puzzle, Necessity or Agglomeration of Coincidences? 4.2 Water and Chance 4.2.1 Water Properties as Coincidence and Necessity 4.2.2 Water and Vortices 4.2.3 Turbulence 4.2.4 Between Chances and Order 4.2.5 Summary of the Chapter References Chapter 5: Three Worlds in the World, with Coincidence 5.1 A Brief History of Philosophy 5.2 The Three Worlds of Karl Popper Updated with Chance and Software 5.2.1 Mechanical Machines cannot Think, Computers Can 5.2.2 The Structure of the World Model 5.2.3 Chance Is Necessary 5.2.4 Summary of the Chapter References Chapter 6: Evolution: The Creativity of Nature 6.1 Evolution Is Not a Theory 6.1.1 Teilhard de Chardin 6.1.2 Young-Earth Creationism 6.2 Evolution as Software Technology and Process with Chance 6.2.1 The Principle 6.2.2 The Raw Coincidence 6.2.3 Directed Randomness and ``Propensity´´ 6.3 Biological Evolution as Creative Chance 6.3.1 Charles Darwin 6.3.2 The Concept of Evolution 6.3.3 Mechanisms of the Action of Evolution 6.4 Anthropic and Copernican Principle 6.5 Evolution: All Coincidence or Also Necessity? 6.5.1 The Eye as an Example 6.5.2 The Big Question: Small Coincidence or Very Big Coincidence? 6.5.3 Retrograde Directed Randomness 6.5.4 Difficult Beginnings and Megatrajectories 6.6 Abiogenesis and Chemical Evolution 6.7 Evolution as a Randomly Driven software System 6.7.1 Evolution as a Large System 6.7.2 Evolution as Agile Software Development 6.8 Religiousness, Evolution and Chance 6.8.1 Summary of the Chapter References Chapter 7: Human Creativity and Chance 7.1 Types of Human Creativity 7.1.1 When There Was no Creativity 7.1.2 Forms of Creativity 7.2 Creativity and Computers 7.2.1 Computers Are Creative with Chance 7.2.2 Computers Think Almost Humanly, Even without Understanding 7.3 The Human Being in the Computer Model with Randomness 7.3.1 Human Creativity and the Computer Model 7.3.2 The Problem with Artificial Chance 7.3.3 Computer and Human Decide 7.3.4 ``Free Will´´ and Chance 7.3.5 Summary of the Chapter References Chapter 8: Chance as the Foundation of the World 8.1 Noise as a Random Continuum and Motor 8.2 Chance as a System: The Tychism 8.2.1 The Historical Tychism 8.2.2 Neo-Tychism: Absolute Chance in the Modern World 8.2.3 Summary of the Chapter References Chapter 9: Chance in Human Life References Chapter 10: Conclusions References Glossary Literature Index