Can quantitative model explain away our world?

Question

So, for the sake of argument, let us assume that we have sufficient computational power and brightest scientists. Can we explain/predict every aspect and event of our universe with quantitative model?

Or do you think there are certain aspects within universe such as probabilities and psychology that are naturally beyond quantitative approach?

This is a philosophy of science question, although physics of course have played an important role in showing that many apparently (to the early modern era) unquantifiable things like "heat" and "colour" actually can be quantified. — Anders Sandberg, Jun 20 '18 at 05:58
Possible duplicate of Could the universe be accurately simulated with an infinitely powerful computer? — Kyle Kanos, Jun 20 '18 at 10:12
Well I thought my question is a bit different because I am including psychology into the question (whether we can quantify psychologies). But I guess it should be two part question — Chanseok Oh, Jun 20 '18 at 10:41

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 20 '18 at 10:53

Just because something is inherently probabilistic (i.e. “uncertain”) does not stop it from being quantified. Quantum Theory as a whole is all about quantifying uncertainty. Computing and analyzing various probabilities and how they interact.

The most powerful computers and brightest scientists, from what we know of Quantum Mechanics, which is our best model of reality so far, could never be enough to determine what will happen. But these methods can, and do, describe and quantify what can happen. They accurately describe the proportions in which events occur. This is most likely the best we will ever get, and is embedded into the mathematics of our contemporary models for reality.

Now we are getting in the realm of my opinion, but nothing is beyond being measured and quantified. If we discover something that is, all we have to do is observe its effects for long enough to develop a model for it. It then becomes a part of what we know how to measure and quantify. Science has been like this since forever, and is not likely to change any soon.

score -3 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 20 '18 at 10:22

-3

This used to be a very important question. Because of its implication on the existence of an omnipotent entity (God). The answer, however, is no. It is because of this theorem called "Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle". According to this theorem, because we do not already know everything in the universe, there will always be an error in our measurements. The more quantitative calculations we do, the more the error is compounded.

answered Jun 20 '18 at 10:22

Kavi Vaidya

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I think you are mixing up quantum mechanical probabilities with chaotic behaviour. – user1583209 Jun 20 '18 at 10:53
Please do not bring God into this – Gabriel Golfetti Jun 20 '18 at 11:04
@GabrielGolfetti no I am not, I am simply telling the history. – Kavi Vaidya Jun 20 '18 at 13:51
@user1583209 This is what I understood from what Stephen Hawkings said in his book. I may be wrong, but he did say that because of the compounding of the errors and the uncertainty, we can never know the exact course of the universe. – Kavi Vaidya Jun 20 '18 at 13:53

Can quantitative model explain away our world?

2 Answers2