TheAncientGeek comments on Possibility and Could-ness - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (113)
The argument is invalid. The existence of subjective uncertainty doesn't imply the non existence of objective indeterminism.
That doesn't mean it must have been whatever it was,
I couldn't agree more that a snapshot of state doesn't imply anything about modalities of possibility. Problem is, it doesn't imply anything about modalities of necessity either. To say there are no real possibilities is to say that everything happens necessarily, deterministically and inevitably. But there is neither necessity nor possibility, neither determinism, nor indeterminism, in a snapshot.
To describe both possibility and necessity, you need rules. In general, x!possible means "not forbidden by rules X".
In the case of physical possibility and necessity, the rules are physical laws. A snapshot of state doesn't give you any information about the way the state will evolve. Hence the absence of possibility from state snapshots, not to mention the absence of necessity.
I don't know what physical laws are , ontologocally, but they are not made of atoms, and they are therefore a problem for simpler minded physicalism.