I have a question that keeps going back and forth in my mind, and I'd like to get your opinions on it. This is all hypothetical, but lets just say we had a computer with an infinite capacity for data. Also assume that all the physical laws governing the universe were put in to this computer. Also assume that the computer has inside of it ALL of the data for one moment in time, and only one moment in time. (Where everything in the universe is, it's velocity, mass, everything) Would this computer be able to, using the physical laws it has in it, know all the information for the past and future as well?

An easy example of how this could work would be if I were to give you a set of laws for something, and then a certain set of information corrosponding to one sliver of it. Say you have a plane, and on it there's a circle, which we will say that there is also a coordinate plane on this plane, not neccesarily at the center of the plane. Anywhere will do. Also, the plane isn't a whole plane, but a square. The length of a side of the square is JUST under the length of a diameter of the circle, so that on any line passing through the plane, there will be two points. You can't allow there to be only one point, or you'd have to add a new law about things being created out of no where. Here's some data:

Laws: All points in the universe line up to create a circle. Points can not appear out of no where. If there are x number of points on one line, there will be x number of points on any lines.

Data: For a line going through the plane, there is a point at (-2,-6) and a point at (-2,4). The tangent line at point (-2,-6) has an undefined slope, and so does the tangent line going through point (-2,4).

Using this data you should be able to tell me where the points will be found on any line going through the plane. In the universal sense, time would be like the line, and the points would be everything in the universe.

Anyways, I guess what this is all getting down to is whether you think anything is truly random.

Wes - "I need to stop 'thinking'"