3 ms·
If the math of this has been known for a while, has anyone done the e2e math of what a FTL communication through this protocol would look like? Seems like it s
by daxfohl 6y ago
If the math of this has been known for a while, has anyone done the e2e math of what a FTL communication through this protocol would look like? Seems like it should be a straightforward calculation.
My guess it it is a straightforward calculation, and that it is real. We'll have a hard time dealing with it existentially, but the math will be right and the physics will eventually be shown to correspond.
We'll have something where a particle can be entangled with its past/future self, the future self being affected by the past self and vice versa. And that should be okay. It'll reignite the debate of the possibility of changing the past vs the lack of free will, effect preceding cause, but in a way it will push the "shut up and calculate" forward because it's all math.
At least, that's what I somewhat hope will happen. It kind of reminds me of the relativity revolution. There was an inconsistency in E&M theory due to the constant speed of light, and we invented all kinds of ways to work around that, when it turned out that if you just assume constant speed of light then it worked out. Same thing here, we're philosophically rejecting FTL communication but perhaps the right thing is to accept it, follow the math QM gives us, and recognize that it's possible, that it's all just math, and while it's mind-bending, it's not actually all that spooky. Relativity is just the limit case of zero tunneling.
QM is tricky, as soon as you think you have it cornered with a contradiction, it slips away at the last second.
My guess, we'll discover that yes it is possible in a closed system for a cat to send the signal back in time that triggers the gun that shoots its former self. But it's not possible for that contradiction to escape the system, so upon opening the box, you'll always see a live cat. Or something like that.
- daxfohl 6y agoThe nice thing about this would be more clarity around FTL stuff. The current thing where wave function collapse correlations can go FTL but communication cannot has always felt to be a bit of a cop out. Would love to see this defined more precisely.