The universe, we now know, is not deterministic. It is often deterministic for macro-level analysis (if I drop a ball 1,000 times, it will fall at exactly the precise value given by Newton’s formulation of gravity), but it doesn’t hold at micro or galactic-level scales. Everything is determined by probabilities, and it just so happens that those probabilities are sometimes pretty close to deterministic.
Fine. But is there truth? If I drop a ball a billion times and it falls a billion times, is that enough to say that it is “true” that dropping a ball will result in it falling at a specific speed? There is a probability (infinitesimally small, natch) that the ball will not fall due to electron repulsion or weird gravitational effects or something-something-quantum.
Science. It’s a helluva drug.
Anyway. The point I’m asking is if truth, what actually happens, what is real, however we want to define truth, is deterministic or not in a universe in which everything else is based on probabilities? It’s a weird thought… are there circumstances of truth being quantum (“one unit of truth” being the smallest possible unit of truth possible), or is truth actually a binary (true or false), or is truth a continuum of fractions-of-truth? If there is nobody around to witness the universe does “truth” stop being significant? Does even the act of observing a truth change it? And, of course, is there even such a thing? Does truth just not exist?
There are definitely days where my brain works perpendicular to the direction I kinda need it to work, and today’s rapid descent into the structure of truth is one such day. Nothing meant by it, just idle thoughts, but these are the kinds of things that keep me up some nights.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!