Chapter 12.                                        Part E  

                

It is important to re-iterate here that quantum theory is not talking about the macro level of variability, which is an approximation that we are forced to by practical limits on our measuring abilities when we are dealing with systems like the weather. Under that view, one may still see the universe as a deterministic place. Instead, quantum theory is saying that the processes going on at the sub-atomic level are always popping in what appear - to us - to be uncaused ways. What Einstein called "spooky action at a distance". (He loathed the very idea of it.) But the point for my goal of trying to find a basis in physical reality for a moral code is not affected by these distinctions. Probability, as an overriding quality of reality, is ubiquitous and, as far as we can tell presently, eternal. We must live with a probabilistic reality and adapt to it as a fact of life.

Physicists are unclear about how or even whether quantum uncertainty and non-quantum uncertainty interact and enhance one another. The huge range of outcomes in complex systems may be influenced by both non-quantum and quantum events. Currently, we just don't know. The exact nature of what is going on down there is still being debated.

However, our moral models are not affected by these distinctions. In the level of reality at which our choices are made and our actions are measured, we experience reality as being made of events that are probabilistic. And in those chains of events, informed, guided, chosen human actions can effectively intervene and alter the likelihoods of at least some outcomes. This is all that really matters for moral philosophy.

Therefore, in all that follows, I will speak of the probabilistic quality of nature as being one of the crucial and basic characteristics that we humans must deal with. When I speak of "quantum uncertainty", I will be referring to the total uncertainty of reality that human beings have to learn to accommodate and react effectively to.

                                                       

                                         

                                                                   Charles S. Peirce 

Quantum theory breaks the backbone of classical determinism. At the tiniest level that we have so far been able to study, events are not connected by single paths of direct cause and effect. They are connected by forces that do not obey exact laws of cause and effect, but instead can only be described by laws of probability. The consequence for humans at the human level is that life is full of uncertainty, or to be exact, probabilities. Reality is a stochastic system. Most of the time we know with a high degree of probability what is going to happen next, and we also know, with a fair degree of reliability, how we may be able to influence what is going to happen next; but we never know for certain what is going to happen with anything. This view was anticipated by the American philosopher, Peirce, in the 1890's and has been further developed by many thinkers right into the twenty-first century. (4.) (5.)

We can act, and we do act, in bold, informed, calculated, and skilful ways, and our actions alter the probabilities of the various events that may happen in the next few seconds or decades, but it is also true that we can't ever act so intelligently or skillfully that we can be one hundred percent sure of any outcome, good or bad. The elements of surprise and risk are built into reality.