Statement that the Universe is random means that all events are not predetermined; they appear to have no cause and turn out of nowhere. The opposite is the deterministic Universe. This vision posits that everything is pre-determined in the universe and de-facto can be predicted. On the one hand, the Universe appears utterly determined, while on the other hand, the quantum mechanics and its Uncertainty Principle prove the opposite. THESIS STATEMENT: Universe is both: deterministic and random. Randomness co-exists with determinism because they are found on different levels, time, and size scales.

It is known that all quantum events, at the elementary level, are random. This should not, however, mean that the reality which is made from these events is random. Vlatko Vedral provides an example how two quantum processes can in some way cancel out to generate something deterministic. In his example, the behavior of photon in a lab does not have random outcomes, but measuring this photon after the first beam-splitter always ends up in photon deterministic end behind the second beam-splitter. This is how both ideas co-exist (Vedral, “Decoding Reality” ).

Further, it needs to be clarified that motion of big things is essentially deterministic. This is explained, for instance, by Newton’s laws, which successfully predict the motions. Yet, such small particles as photons or electrons are in no way understood through the lens of Newton’s laws. They are explained by the recently created quantum mechanics. It should be emphasized that everything in the universe is governed by the laws that determine how everything works, and thus is deterministic, but we should also remember that elementary particles and atoms are doing a million evidently impossible things at once.

For example, it is easy to predict that a living object will not live when placed at the heart of an atomic bomb, which is deterministic, but will not be able to predict the number of fluctuations of quantum mechanical nature, which are found in each piece of matter, as well as the energy which will be given off are not possible to predict. Therefore both approaches co-exist in agreement.