Strong Influence of Molecular Interactions over Large Distances and Its Consequences

Molecular-dynamics simulations of liquid water show deterministic chaos, i.e. an intentionally introduced molecular position shift of an individual molecule increases exponentially by a factor of 10 in 0.23 ps. This is Lyaponov instability. Once it reaches molecular scale, the direction of the resulting shift in molecular motions is unpredictable. The influence of any individual distant particle on an observed molecule will be minute, but the effect will quickly increase to molecular scale and beyond due to this exponential growth. Thus, any individual particle in the universe will affect the behavior of any molecule within at most 33 ps after the interaction reaches it. A larger distance of the faraway particle does not decrease the influence on an observed molecule, but the effect reaches molecular scale only some ps later. Thus, in evaluating interactions, nearby and faraway molecules have to be equally accounted for.
This result leads to a fundamental rethinking of the structure of interactions of molecules and particles as well as the behavior of reality. Even in a strictly deterministic view, molecular behavior is principally unpredictable, and thus has to be regarded random. Thus, molecular-dynamics simulations show only one possible development of the molecules. Only a statistical description is appropriate to characterize molecular behavior. This is similar to quantum physics, where in the Copenhagen interpretation only the statistical description is attributed a meaning in reality.
The effects described also influence the discussion of the arrow of time in describing reality. While in forward direction any initial condition can be chosen, reversal of time for only 33 ps would require that deterministically induced interactions fold back consistently within the entire universe until the big bang. Thus, the direction of time is not a question of reversing time in physical laws but a question of being able to define the initial conditions.