Saturday 25 June 2016

biology - Why are there limits on physics' applicability?



(Not sure if this is the right SE for this question).


Physics is great at predicting what inanimate stuff do. Why can't it also predict what living things do? For example, if I throw a ball off a cliff then I can predict that it'll move in a parabola. If I throw a person off a cliff I can also predict that he'll move in a parabola, but I can't predict if he'll land with his left hand pointing up or not, since he can choose to make my prediction wrong.



In principle, the motion of all particles that make up the person is deterministic (up to quantum uncertainty), which should imply that the motion of the person is also deterministic. But it isn't. The only thing I can think of that can create this uncertainty is quantum mechanics, but by Bell's theorem QM is fundamentally unpredictable. If QM is the root reason we can't predict living behavior, that should imply everything we do is random, e.g. "I choose to drive to work today, but halfway there I might choose to drive to a cinema instead", which is obviously not the case.


It seems clear to me that physics fundamentally fails to predict living beings. Hence the question: why?


EDIT: I don't consider this a duplicate of Are living organisms deterministic? because it assumes that living organisms are not deterministic, and asks why. The answers in that question also deal with "total" determinism, not determinism in the quantum sense, which is also addressed in this question.




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