Theclockwork universe is a concept which compares theuniverse to amechanical clock. It continues ticking along, as a perfect machine, with its gears governed by thelaws of physics, making every aspect of the machine predictable. It evolved during theEnlightenment in parallel with the emergence ofNewton's laws governing motion and gravity.
This idea was very popular amongdeists[1] during theEnlightenment, whenIsaac Newton derived hislaws of motion, and showed that alongside the law of universalgravitation, they could predict the behaviour of bothterrestrial objects and theSolar System.
A similar concept goes back toJohn of Sacrobosco's early 13th-century introduction to astronomy:On the Sphere of the World. In this widely popular medieval text, Sacrobosco spoke of the universe as themachina mundi, the machine of the world, suggesting that the reported eclipse of the Sun at the crucifixion of Jesus was a disturbance of the order of that machine.[1]
Responding toGottfried Leibniz,[2] a prominent supporter of the theory, in theLeibniz–Clarke correspondence,Samuel Clarke wrote:[3]
The Notion of the World's being a great Machine, going on without the Interposition of God, as a Clock continues to go without the Assistance of a Clockmaker; is the Notion of Materialism and Fate, and tends, (under pretence of making God a Supra-mundane Intelligence,) to exclude Providence and God's Government in reality out of the World.
In 2009, artist Tim Wetherell created a wall piece forQuestacon (The National Science and Technology centre in Canberra, Australia) representing the concept of the clockwork universe. This steel artwork contains moving gears, a working clock, and a movie of thelunar terminator.