The Universe, Free-Will, and Janna Levin
The latest Speaking of Faith podcast had Krista Tippett interviewing Janna Levin, theoretical mathematician, philosopher and author of A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines. She has spent her career looking into the realities of existence and truths of the universe. In the interview, she describes how the universe through mathematics is completely predetermined, and nothing can be considered “free-will” as we understand it.
Now, this might just be my American free-spirit predetermining my response here, but I have to humbly disagree with her.
With what little I know of Mandelbrot Set (M-Set) Fractals (see a totally sweet post on them here) they are a repeating rhythm based on a simple equation that ideally go on for infinity. They have infinite precision, but they are not touchable.
Arthur C. Clark (wrote 2001: A Space Oddessy) narrated a movie series on fractal geometry called “Fractals – the Colors of Infinity”. I’ve included the YouTube video (1st part) below. (A little cheezy, but you owe it to yourself to watch this…)
Fractals like this explain the motion of the planets around the sun, the shape and movement of clouds, continents, or trees, right down to DNA revolving around itself. What is so unusual about the M-Set is that is both complete and incomplete – both fully definable and fully indefinable. It is like islands of order in the sea of chaos. The M-Set is infinitely complex, organic, fluid, and yet completely definable and simple.
I believe the realities of the M-Set Fractal help us understand how parts of our universe is both revealed and concealed, both mysterious and definable. When we think about predeterminism, and free-will, no longer are we confined to choose one side or the other. Maybe through mathematics, we can understand that God allows free-will and yet knows everything. Maybe we can understand how God is both revealed and mysterious…
In my opinion, the Mandelbrot Set (nicknamed the “thumbprint of God”) offers a question to Jenna Levin, and invites deep questions into existence, consciousness, and organic reality in the universe.
Very interesting. I love this kind of stuff. Will watch the rest of the series as time permits.
Guy, thanks man. I’m a total nerd for this stuff myself. I felt like I was back in 5th grade math class being mesmerized by the cool scientists, and the cool wailing guitar solos as the video displayed swirling fractals.
It’d be neat to learn more about this, and compare it to biology. What in nature is a fractal? What isn’t?