I don't believe it is all determined 100% beforehand, although my previous post might make it seem that way. The previous state dictates the present to a certain degree of accuracy, but the present state will be still affected by constant fluctuations. Once again though, we aren't in control of these variables. How can we be? We are not "above" the physical laws. We are a direct result of their attributes.
I admit, many factors are determined, and it's good I think as you say how QM makes for more uncertainties, no matter how we (under our current methods) measure it out.
The uncertainty principle effectively cuts the ability to determine in half. Remember that not being able to know both the speed and the position of a particle is a fundamental property of the universe, rather than us being ignorant to some hidden variable/principle. So determinism can only be approximate. Furthermore, determinism is lost completely when it comes to black holes. Quantum states are also probabilistic (as is the wave function). The Planck scale is so small that the universe on our scale appears deterministic. But it does mean that on a fundamental level, the universe is not completely predetermined.
I guess you think that even if there is some randomness out there in the QM, because we can't control its results, we may as well just say that it's determining our actions.
Every object in space has to be under the laws of physics because that is how it formed into an object in the first place.
Well, we can calculate whatever is in our scope with the equations, but it wouldn't work to know how everything would interrelate in physical systems all across the universe (unless you're God and can see everything).
So you would count our minds as a meta-physical system? Why? Surely we are physical systems, just more complex than a star, for example. The consciousness is the result of a tremendously complex physical system, so complex to us that many people need to apply some special force for its existence to appear rational.
The brain is a purely physical system; it's just a sack of meat that acts as a sort of gateway between mind and body. I take the position that we have 3 bodies actually: physical, spiritual (negative matter), and energetic (a binder between the 2). I'm not saying that as fact, but I think this explanation may actually capture quite a bit. If you want my opinion on physics, I'll just say that it's both the most fundamental, and least significant of the cosmic systems.
Are you talking about breaking the laws of physics? How would we go about doing that?
This is actually a very good question. As of now, like I mentioned, this idea exists pretty much as a philosophy. It just seems like there might be certain barriers out there that, if sufficient power were harnessed, could be surpassed. And from a higher vantage point, perhaps we could stop being chess pieces, and start becoming chess players. But right now, that idea is way ahead of its time (assuming it has any promise in the first place); the philosophical position is that we need to rise above our restrictions, become more free and able to see or do anything.
Yeah exactly. Our wills can't be in control of quantum events (which aren't completely random, btw, but are probabilistic rather than deterministic) Our wills are an effect from something else that was created by the very conditions that they create.
If our minds were powerful enough, we may discover otherwise, but as for now, the quantum events control us.
It's true that I do enjoy their way of thinking.
I think they have great ideas, but I also think that their ideas don't go far enough.