# Free Will Laplace's Daemon {% embed url="" %} We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.— Pierre Simon Laplace, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities[\[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace%27s_demon#cite_note-Truscott-3) > #### Chaos theory and Laplaces' Demon Wikipedia > > [Chaos theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory) is sometimes pointed out as a contradiction to Laplace's demon: it describes how a deterministic system can nonetheless exhibit behavior that is impossible to predict: as in the [butterfly effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect), minor variations between the starting conditions of two systems can result in major differences.[\[9\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace%27s_demon#cite_note-SEPDeterminism-9) While this explains unpredictability in practical cases, applying it to Laplace's case is questionable: under the strict demon hypothesis all details are known—to infinite precision—and therefore variations in starting conditions are non-existent. Put another way: Chaos theory is applicable when knowledge of the system is imperfect whereas Laplace's demon assumes perfect knowledge of the system, therefore chaos theory and Laplace's demon are actually compatible with each other. #### Chaos theory\[[edit](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Laplace%27s_demon\&action=edit\§ion=5)] [Chaos theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory) is sometimes pointed out as a contradiction to Laplace's demon: it describes how a deterministic system can nonetheless exhibit behavior that is impossible to predict: as in the [butterfly effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect), minor variations between the starting conditions of two systems can result in major differences.[\[9\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace%27s_demon#cite_note-SEPDeterminism-9) While this explains unpredictability in practical cases, applying it to Laplace's case is questionable: under the strict demon hypothesis all details are known—to infinite precision—and therefore variations in starting conditions are non-existent. Put another way: Chaos theory is applicable when knowledge of the system is imperfect whereas Laplace's demon assumes perfect knowledge of the system, therefore chaos theory and Laplace's demon are actually compatible with each other. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://kdoore.gitbook.io/contemplative-practice-cs-ideas-activities/deterministic-vs-stochastic-dynamic-systems/free-will-laplaces-daemon.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.