The Purpose of The Uncertainty Principle

The uncertainty principle is a feature of nature that introduces a certain lack of accuracy with regard to certain scientific predictions. It is accepted by most scientists, and most obviously manifest in physics on the atomic scale (this is called quantum physics). A classic example of the effect is that is is not possible to exactly know the location of a sub-atomic particle and the direction and speed it is moving at the same time. We can know its exact location, or its exact direction and speed, but not both things at once.

Some scientists believe that the inherantly uncertain properties of this principle conflict with a relativistic or Einstienien view of the Universe, a view in which every act is accurately predictable (the accurate predictions of the motions of the planets is a prime example of relativistic physics). This confict is wrong because in any Universe in which time is a dimension, an uncertainty principle must exist. The existence of the uncertainty principle is a proof that time is a dimension.

Let us start with an example. By some magical insight, you see that tomorrow at 10am you will be involved in a fatal car crash while a passenger in a red car. If that were true, it would be easy for you to avoid red cars tomorrow. With such knowledge you could change the future because you had advance warning of it.

Now, if time is a dimension then the future is laid out. The future is like a distant place to which we are all travelling. The future is already there; we are just moving towards it, revealing pre-existing events like a film projector revealing future frames. In that situation it is not possible to change the future because it already exists, all of the future (and past) is already here.

We now have a paradox. If the future exists then we cannot change it, but if we can predict the future then we could change it. Something has to give. The uncertainty principle indicates that it is our ability to predict the future that gives. In the car crash example you might see that you will die tomorrow at 10am but not know how, or you might know that you will be killed in a car crash but not know when or where. This innacuracy is an essential component of a Universe in which time is a dimension, and manifests itself as the uncertainty principle.

Conclusions

It is possible to predict the future but there are inherant limits on accuracy; we can never predict any future state accurately enough to affect it. That principle represents an absolute limit to any scientific prediction. The principle is most evident in atomic scales but occurs on all scales. Uncertain predictions are an essential component of a Universe in which time is a dimension, and the existence of the uncertainty principle proves that the future already exists and cannot be changed.

Mark Sheeky, 1 Dec 2004