3 ms·
Most people don't understand enough about the fundamental properties of modern Physics. What we usually call the speed of light is in fact the maximum speed of
by stephc_int13 3y ago
Most people don't understand enough about the fundamental properties of modern Physics.
What we usually call the speed of light is in fact the maximum speed of information propagation.
It is not about light, and you should think about quantum entanglement as a hidden variable, there is no magic there.
- Filligree 3y agoI was under the impression that local hidden variable theories had been disproven? It could be nonlocal of course, but that would imply information moving faster than light again. Unless you count the entirety of MWI as "hidden variables", I guess?
- stephc_int13 3y agoYeah, I am aware of Bell's theorem. What I am saying is that the hidden variable hypothesis is nonetheless a good mental model as a first approximation to reason about QE, say as a non-professional physicist. People get confused, especially sci-fi authors, adding to the general confusion about anything touching Quantum Physics being almost magical/limitless or unexplainable. This is a lot more pedestrian in practice.
- graemep 3y agoIt do not think sci-fi authors are confused, but just willing to live with inaccuracy for the sake of the story and universe building. Its like faster than light travel - you need to find some excuse to make something work. I very much doubt Ursula Le Guin thought we could build an ansible (FTL comms) any more than Larry Niven thinks the Teela Brown gene (heritable luck) is real.
- vidarh 3y agoHaving written two scifi novels and with plans for more, indeed while I will assure you many of us are still confused, I also think most have a better than average grasp of this. For my part, the limited FTL in my books is a very deliberate violation of my (poor) understanding of quantum mechanics, and it'll be a plot point to restrict the violation further than apparent by the first couple of books... It is a really tough topic to get an intuition for, though.
- nobodyandproud 3y agoNon-Locality doesn’t mean information travels faster than c. The main article attempts to explain why instantaneous “spooky action at a distance” is real, yet information can’t be relayed this way.
- zare_st 3y agoFor specific cases, asm is faster than c. I'll show myself out
- nobodyandproud 3y agoYou win. I truly appreciated the joke; and two days and I still couldn't think of something on par.
- cwmma 3y agoBut isn't that the frustrating thing about this, it implies superluminal communications just in a non-useful way. Managing to make the speed of light not be the maximum speed of information propagation but only in a technical and useless way.
- archgoon 3y agoI mean, it's pretty impressive that Quantum Mechanics forbids FTL communication without referencing the speed of light at all and relies entirely on linearity.