Unfortunately I can’t take credit for this gem of a hypothetical idea, but I was lucky enough to be in the discussion when it came up at a party a couple months ago. Like most hypothetical ideas, this one requires that an assumption be made. However, it’s not a very difficult assumption to make. All you have to do is assume that the most widely held theory on the origin of the universe, the big bang, is correct.

Step one: very shortly after the big bang, when the outer radius of exploding matter is relatively small, freeze time.
Step two: take a break and relax if you need to. You’ve stopped time, so nothing is going to change in this thought experiment until you’re ready to proceed.
Step three: consider the claim of this hypothetical idea as outlined in the following if/then statement:

If you know the initial conditions at the moment you froze time (i.e.* the location, density, and velocity (speed and direction) of all the matter) as well as how all the atoms/quarks interact with each other, then you know the future of the universe. This includes knowing when and what things will happen on earth, such as when the trees in central park will lose their leaves and where each leaf will fall on the pavement. And also larger things like the location and size of sun spots on our sun or any sun in the universe at any time. And of course you would similarly know that I would be at this moment writing about it, because the atoms in my fingertips would have to contact the atoms in the keys on my keyboard, given the initial conditions known moments after the big bang.

I like this idea because the implication of its claim is simultaneously immense and irrefutable, as far as I can make out. It’s the same principle as knowing the path of a billiard ball if the magnitude and direction of the force applied to it is known, only on an almost inconceivably more complex and larger scale.

My contribution to the discussion was merely to propose that if a hypothetical supercomputer existed which had sufficient computational power to account for all the interactions of matter in the universe, if it were supplied with the correct initial conditions, then it would know the future, essentially replacing the “you” in the the claim of step three with a machine.

Eli adamantly opposed this proposition, stating that the supercomputer would have no way of accounting for the atoms of which it was itself composed. I, however, don’t think it would be too big of a computer science problem to write some code making the computer aware of it’s own existence. Afterall, I have no trouble understanding that I am composed of some of the matter that was unleashed during the big bang.

*Fuck, that’s 2 i.e.’s in as many posts of mine!