Advaitic quotes

[Prashant Sharma]

On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, sadananda wrote:

> >Shri Gurubhyo' Namah:
> >
> > I came across this quite interesting verse when I was reading on my
> >current research topic. And I figured it would be interesting to post it
> >too.!!
> >(It is basically about science, and specifically, it is about the
> >importance of trying to solve the N-body problem, with several bodies
> >interacting with each other and we are trying to solve Newton's equation
> >of motion.)
> >
> > Given for one instant an intelligence which could comprehend all the
> >forces by which nature is animated and the respective situation of the
> >beings who compose it - an intelligence sufficiently vast to submit these
> >data to anlysis - it would embrace in the same formula the movements of
> >the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the lightest atom; for
> >it nothing would be uncertain and the future, as the past, would be
> >present to it's eyes.
> >                - de Laplace P.S., A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities
> >                        Dover, New York, 1951.
> >
> >Vaidya.
>
> I could not comprehend this quote.  The last statement "; for it nothing
> ..." does not follow the rest of it.  Probabilities of particular events
> are related to the uncertainties of the future.  If there are several event

The quote is by a scientist in the pre-quantum era.  When the view point
shared by all the scientists was that the motion of all objects is given
by the known laws of physics (Newton's laws and Maxwell's equations) to
any degree of precision desired.  The only reason statistical physics was
developed was because one couldn't possibly solve the equations for a
large number of particles and hope to obtain from the solution physically
relevant
information, like how the pressure and volume of the system changes
with time.  The view point reflected by this quote is the then prevelant
thought in the back of every scientists mind that perhaps there exists
some "intelligence" which can see through the maze of these large number
of equations, solve them and thus "uniquely" know the "answer" of the
state of the universe for all times to come (the then known laws of
physics only involved linear differential equations => that once initial
conditions are known everything that follows can be uniquely predicted).
        We now understand that all these ideas are wrong, because the true
physics is quantum mechanical in nature and also the equations of motion
are non-linear and therefore there are complications :-) of the kind that
Shri Sadanand points out.
Regards.
Prashant.