Quote:
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Originally Posted by Tormod
A gas cannot be predicted, especially not a stellar gas. Consider the sizes of these things. Our computer models may show that we get this or that outcome given certain variables, but we cannot know the exact initial state of any system of that complexity.
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I think I was pretty inarticulate in my last post.
I did not mean to infer any level of predictability in star genesis, except in the macro sense. Certainly the level of chaos (that is, the number of non-linear processes running concurrently) in a formative star system would preclude specific prediction, even if we knew the starting state in good detail. That is the nature of chaotic behavior. We don't know the specifics of the non-linear proceses, and we can't solve multiple concurrent nonlinear equations. But even though we can't predict the end state (due to chaotic complexity), the end state is a natural resultant of the beginning state.
Contrast this with the notion of random dice rolls. Any initial state (e.g., a previous roll) has no bearing on the end state (e.g., the next roll). If we hypothesize that stars form through a deterministic process subsequent to a specific initial state, then the environment was never random in the first place.
As I begin to rethink my own initial question, I am wondering if we have examples of systems that are actually random. The biological environment on primordial earth may have been random, although my impression of that possibility my be a vestige of my limitied understanding of the extant chaotic complexity.
Do you think the source nebulous gasses were actually random?
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Few problems are so complex that they cannot be substantially clarified by one more cup of coffee
(or a nice cabernet if it is after 5:00)
Moderator in absentia. Return anticipated. Timing somewhat vague.
