Laplace meets Godel: How Self reference Foils Prediction

From Santa Fe Institute

Jenann Ismael, Johns Hopkins University A common assumption holds that perfect prediction is theoretically possible in a deterministic universe. However, I use puzzles of counterprediction and self-reference to highlight a source of unpredictability that is independent of ignorance or indeterminism. I argue that this form of unpredictability emerges for any system that represents the world from within, revealing a crack in the edifice of determinism that life and cognition actively exploit. C...