3 ms·
Sometimes I muse that it's the belief of the experimenters themselves that can briefly coerce the world into behaving in a certain way... something quantum many
by throw310822 3y ago
Sometimes I muse that it's the belief of the experimenters themselves that can briefly coerce the world into behaving in a certain way... something quantum many worlds... something something. :)
- tialaramex 3y agoThis is the idea that Schrödinger was attempting to ridicule in his cat thought experiment. The intent is that this idea is intuitively ludicrous. Unfortunately pop culture got hold of it and now, well, "Ooh quantum stuff, put cats everywhere" ... On the other hand, Greg Egan did a couple of short stories about what if the underlying mathematics (which necessarily governs our universe) is altered when we "discover" weird things about it and this binds us to other universes sharing that mathematics, so we can't go there, and they can't come here, but if they discover something weird about the relationship between Pi and set theory that becomes true here even though we haven't "discovered" that, and if they can choose to discover something different, that is true instead.
- throw310822 3y agoYes it's definitely an idea that can be found here and there in Greg Egan's novels and short stories. Among other places, towards the end of Permutation City when it's suggested that the world beliefs of the inhabitants of Permutation City (humans vs evolved artificial species) are themselves shaping its reality.