Deterministic Systems
Before answering the question asked in this essay, it is important to understand what exactly a “Deterministic System” is. A Deterministic System is a system in which no randomness is involved in the development of future states of the system. It is the system in which we can predict the coming output or behavior of the system with the help of analyzing the previous behavior or outputs. A Deterministic System will always produce the same output, however this doesn’t really spell out that in the later stages of the system are predictable. Unpredictable system is such system for which we can’t predict the upcoming outcome or behavior. Stochastic or random system is the example of unpredictable systems because we can’t tell or predict the upcoming states of these systems. For example a fair coin is tossed then the result is not predicted by the previous outcomes of the coin. In this essay I will explore how the deterministic system yields unpredictability through examples discussed throughout this semester. “The game of life” is just an example of why deterministic systems are unpredictable. This “game” was derived by the mathematician John Conway. The rules of this game can lead to unpredictable behavior, why? That is because Patterns will fade away, Become stable or fluctuate between two patterns forever. The idea of this “Game” was to start with a simple configuration of organisms(counters), one to a cell, then to see how it varies using his genetic laws for births, deaths and survivals. Conway chose his rules extremely cautious while creating this game of life-so that the conduct of the population is unpredictable.The Game of life- is defined as a zero-player game, where its evolution is determined by its original state. One plays the game by creating a primary configuration and seeing how it evolves. Extensive research on this system defines the Game of life as being “unpredictable”. How could this be so? This is true because we don’t know where to start