PoeticUniverse wrote:Yet, in between the Geiger counter clicks, would there be a why and when it doesn't fission? The click and no click states are different and so…? This is a difference in something.
The Geiger counter clicks happen as a result of the Geiger counter detecting a particle. Say an alpha particle, for example. The QM reason why the alpha particle gets emitted is essentially quantum tunneling. i.e. The uncertainty principle describes the fact that there is a fundamental uncertainty in the position and velocity of the particles that make up atomic nuclei, including alpha particles. That means that even if there is a "potential barrier" (essentially a force) holding the alpha particle in, there is a finite probability that it will appear on the other side of that barrier and escape. That is very metaphorically referred to as "tunneling" through the barrier. So the reason why it's impossible to predict the length of time between specific clicks of the Geiger counter in the uncertainty principle and its application in quantum tunneling.
But what you can predict is the
average length of time between clicks of the Geiger counter. The more clicks you measure, the more accurately you can calculate what the average time between them will be. That's just one example of where uncertain, probabilistic behaviour can, when measured statistically (i.e. averages of large numbers), get arbitrarily close to being deterministic.
So it would be a mistake to think that a universe based on individually uncertain and probabilistic events cannot come arbitrarily close to being deterministic.