“Chance in Physics, Computer Science and Philosophy: Chance as the Foundation of the World” by Walter Hehl

"Chance in Physics, Computer Science and Philosophy: Chance as the Foundation of the World" by Walter Hehl

"Chance is uncanny to us. We thought it didn't exist, that God or a reasonable explanation was behind everything. But we know today: It exists. We know that much of what surrounds us and which we do not see through, nevertheless runs causally. Unlike what was thought in the days of the Enlightenment, chance is the rule around us rather than lawful order. The clouds are stochastic fractals, the waves on the sea are pure random machinery. The philosopher Charles Peirce recognized the fundamental importance of chance in precisely this sense, even before quantum and chaos theory, and gave the doctrine its name: Tychism.

Without chance there would be nothing new, no life, no creativity, no history.

This book looks at chance from the perspective of physics, computer science, and philosophy. It spans from antiquity to quantum physics and shows that chance is firmly built into the world and that it would not exist without chance."