4 ms·

If the single photon simultaneously bounces off the partially-silvered mirror and goes through it, you're not going to get an answer to a binary question from t

by smoyer 5y ago

If the single photon simultaneously bounces off the partially-silvered mirror and goes through it, you're not going to get an answer to a binary question from this experimental set-up.

jonhohle 5y ago
It doesn’t matter since neither event is connected to the outcome of the test anyway. The user could have chosen the opposite fields for the answers (different universe), or another infinite number of split events prior to using the app, one of which is certainly that the app is a joke.
tsimionescu 5y ago
According to the MWI (which is not "prevailing quantum theory") all outcomes of QM experiments are realized, but the experimental apparatus and the rest of the macro world around it become entangled with a particular outcome, and thus unable to perceive the other outcomes. So after every quantum experiment you get N copies of the world, one in which outcome A has happened, one in which B has happened, one in which outcome C has happened etc, and each of these evolves divergently from there on. Of course, there are trillions of trillions of trillions of "quantum experiments" happening in our immediate surrounding every second, so any one experiment in particular is not that important, but it helps to isolate. So, instead of taking a decision, you use the app to rest easy that somewhere out there in the universal wave function, there is a copy of you that has taken the opposite decision.
- staticassertion 5y ago
  This sounds like one of those ideas that's mathematically very pure but sort of nonsensical otherwise. Basically there are an ~infinite number of universes being created every 1 'units of time' where that unit is ~0. IDK, I guess the whole speed of light thing is really silly too in a way, but that's provably true. This just feels really nuts. I guess it's like... where do all of these universes live? I get that our universe expands into whatever, but that seems trivial compared to a theory where every single quantum action leads to a new universe.
  - criddell 5y ago
    > where do all of these universes live? If you think Max Tegmark is right, then the universe is just mathematics and space itself is a mathematical structure. Is there a limit on how many mathematical structures can exist?
    - staticassertion 5y ago
      Well that's my exact point. If everything boils down to math, it's all well and good. But I don't think that's the case.
  - zogomoox 5y ago
    Sean Carrol addressed this in his royal institution lecture (a brief history of quantum mechanics, 37m30s). As far as I understood those universes aren't created, you're just selecting a slice of phase space of the (very big) number of possible universes. ( link: https://youtu.be/5hVmeOCJjOU?t=2247 https://youtu.be/5hVmeOCJjOU?t=2247 )

by smoyer 5y ago

If the single photon simultaneously bounces off the partially-silvered mirror and goes through it, you're not going to get an answer to a binary question from this experimental set-up.

jonhohle 5y ago

It doesn’t matter since neither event is connected to the outcome of the test anyway. The user could have chosen the opposite fields for the answers (different universe), or another infinite number of split events prior to using the app, one of which is certainly that the app is a joke.

tsimionescu 5y ago

According to the MWI (which is not "prevailing quantum theory") all outcomes of QM experiments are realized, but the experimental apparatus and the rest of the macro world around it become entangled with a particular outcome, and thus unable to perceive the other outcomes. So after every quantum experiment you get N copies of the world, one in which outcome A has happened, one in which B has happened, one in which outcome C has happened etc, and each of these evolves divergently from there on. Of course, there are trillions of trillions of trillions of "quantum experiments" happening in our immediate surrounding every second, so any one experiment in particular is not that important, but it helps to isolate. So, instead of taking a decision, you use the app to rest easy that somewhere out there in the universal wave function, there is a copy of you that has taken the opposite decision.

staticassertion 5y ago
This sounds like one of those ideas that's mathematically very pure but sort of nonsensical otherwise. Basically there are an ~infinite number of universes being created every 1 'units of time' where that unit is ~0. IDK, I guess the whole speed of light thing is really silly too in a way, but that's provably true. This just feels really nuts. I guess it's like... where do all of these universes live? I get that our universe expands into whatever, but that seems trivial compared to a theory where every single quantum action leads to a new universe.
- criddell 5y ago
  > where do all of these universes live? If you think Max Tegmark is right, then the universe is just mathematics and space itself is a mathematical structure. Is there a limit on how many mathematical structures can exist?
  - staticassertion 5y ago
    Well that's my exact point. If everything boils down to math, it's all well and good. But I don't think that's the case.
- zogomoox 5y ago
  Sean Carrol addressed this in his royal institution lecture (a brief history of quantum mechanics, 37m30s). As far as I understood those universes aren't created, you're just selecting a slice of phase space of the (very big) number of possible universes. ( link: https://youtu.be/5hVmeOCJjOU?t=2247 https://youtu.be/5hVmeOCJjOU?t=2247 )