> > What would be really cool, though, is if we could easily gather the data and refine the physics so we could predict with equal ease the color of a person's socks the following day.
> That exists. It's called statistical analysis.
> Matthew

I don't think that if we knew all of the laws of physics and the state of all things at one instant that we neccessarily could use statistical analysis to predict the future. Knowing the state of all things is currently not possible with the known laws of physics, Heisenberg, observation, and all that jazz -- but let's say that's just a hurdle to be overcome. There's absolutely no proof that statistics can predict the future. It can increase the odds of being correct, but it's still up to chance. Then, who's to say that as you add more and more details and have a finer and finer knowledge of things that statistics and physics won't break down? In all, determinism is a way to look at things, but only so far supported by meaningless scales.
Having said all that, I liked your arguments.
Eugen'i am determined to follow this with an'e