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DETERMINISM 2: `Refutation' number two.

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|   This posting is part of a series of monomaniac diatribes.  Please   |
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  I explicitly do not want to get all technical here, and certainly do  not
want to get involved in any of the truly vexed questions of the interpreta-
tion of Quantum Mechanics (QM).  The following argument is, however, fairly
simple, and to my knowledge  not especially contentious.  In  particular it
does not rely upon any assumptions about (non-)locality.  Here it is:
    
    Atomic-type  things,  for  example  Neutrons,  have things called `half
  lives' which are periods of time  over which half of any given  collecion
  of the type of thing in  question will `decay', or change into  something
  else.
    
    The QM description of things involves treating every Neutron  (sticking
  with our current example) as identical.  Indeed it involves treating them
  as `the same' to the extent, in effect, of regarding there as being  only
  _one_ (busy as a one legged man at an ass kickin' contest) Neutron in ex-
  istence.    To  repeat:  we  have  no  theoretical  reason  to regard two
  `different' Neutrons as different.  _BUT_ of any two, over the  half-life
  period, only _ONE_ will decay.
    
    From situations between which we have no reason to distinguish, we  get
  clearly _different_ outcomes.   Hence the  falsity of determinism,  which
  holds that the way the past was/present is necessitates a unique (and al-
  ready specifed/specifiable) future.
  
  Any thoughts?
  
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| David Spurrett, department of Philosophy |  `I have seen the truth, and |
| University of Natal, Durban              |   it makes no sense.'        |
| email: spurrett@superbowl.und.ac.za      |              - OFFICIAL!     |
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