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The Theory That There Is Only One Electron in the Universe
- p1mrx 2y agoIf there were really only one electron, somebody in the universe would have broken it by now. Or maybe there is a great filter prohibiting any intelligence capable of poking too hard.
- dhosek 2y agoAh, but because it moves backwards and forwards in time, (the positrons are that same electron going backwards in time), even if it does get broken, you wouldn’t know.
- pixl97 2y agoQuantum immortality. In the universe branches we've screwed with that electron we exploded and disappeared.
- bee_rider 2y agoThat would also explain why there don’t seem to be many advanced species out there; maybe we can only be observing universes in which we’re among the first, because it is less likely that we’ll not-die in a universe where everybody is poking the electron and exploding everything.
- FrankWilhoit 2y ago...and Wheeler stole it from Stueckelberg.
- temporarely 2y agoLooked him up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Stueckelberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Stueckelberg So update meme: "publish in a major journal or languish"
- airstrike 2y agoso he stole it from the one and only Baron Ernst Carl Gerlach Stueckelberg von Breidenbach zu Breidenstein und Melsbach
- openrisk 2y agoIts more a reinterpretation than a different theory because all computations are still the same. There are no alternative predictions for any measurable quantities.
- webwielder2 2y agoAre there really electrons? Or does observable phenomena simply fit with the theory of electrons?
- adolph 2y agoIf theory bounding the observer's sense-making apparatus does not refute the electron, then make of it what you will.
- JadeNB 2y ago> Are there really electrons? Or does observable phenomena simply fit with the theory of electrons? Practically speaking, what is the difference?
- Wowfunhappy 2y agoThere isn't a difference, but you could say the same about this one electron idea.
- gnulinux 2y agoThe reality of electron (presumably) is static but our model of electron can change given new data, new information. The reality of our solar system is the same but the way Newton modeled it in his head is different than the way Einstein modeled it in his head (which is ever so slightly different than how a contemporary physicist would model it in their head at the moment).
- javajosh 2y agoI propose a new flat electron theory. They do in fact orbit the nuclei in a simple orbit. It's just that Maxwell's equations don't apply at those length scales. Electron tunneling is a conspiracy designed to hide the truth. This is of course a sarcastic aside, but I have to admit even toying with the idea of throwing out observations you don't like feels really good. I see why for some unbinding their beliefs from the constraints of reality is so appealing.
- guerrilla 2y ago
- api 2y agoAnother fun electron hypothesis, also unlikely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole_electron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole_electron
- nilkn 2y agoThe conventional answer is that all electrons are the same because they are all local excited states of a single quantized field (the electron field). So we just have to shift perspective from "there's only one electron" to "there's only one electron field".
- kazinator 2y agoThat's about as useful as "there is only one complex plane no matter how many regions and functions we work with".
- nilkn 2y agoNo, it’s a legitimate answer to why all electrons have the same properties. This is the real answer according to our best modern theories of particle physics. It explains why all elementary particles appear to have fixed sets of properties.
- deely3 2y agoIf its possible, can you explain please why electron only? What about other particles?
- GoblinSlayer 2y agoAll particles are like that.
- deely3 2y agoThen why article is about electron only?
- GoblinSlayer 2y agoWhat's true about all particles is also true about electron. There's also the myth that not all particles are equal.
- lupire 2y agoWikipedia has the same info but better https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-electron_universe https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-electron_universe
- npace12 2y agoMom said it's my turn on the electron
- airstrike 2y agoPBS Space Time has the same info but more fun than Wikipedia ;-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dqtW9MslFk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dqtW9MslFk
- buescher 2y agoThis is the basis of one of my favorite jokes about interview questions: "How many electrons are there?" (No, I do not use this question)
- tasty_freeze 2y agoObviously, Wheeler was much more knowledgeable about physics than the likes of me, so my obvious objection must have occurred to him, but here it is. Electrons have mass, so the total mass of a multiple electrons must be more than the mass of a single electron. Or is there some other mind-bender that would explain why "the" single electron appears to have a trillion times it real mass when that electron's timeline happens to be considered at a particular slice of space and time? Also, why wouldn't this logic also apply to every other primitive particle: there is only one muon, one tau, one up quark, one down quark, etc?
- saurik 2y agoI never thought I would say this, but... I guess I will recommend you watch the movie Tenet.
- Kranar 2y agoTime travel is required for this thought experiment. The single electron moves forwards and backwards in time so that at any slice of time it can appear at multiple locations simultaneously. Just like a time traveller can go back in time and there would be two of them, this electron travels back and forth in time so that there are numerous instances of it.
- kristjansson 2y ago> numerous Yes, numerous
- geon 2y agoAlso, the electron moving backwards in time would switch the charge and become its antiparticle: a positron. When an electron and a positron meet, they annihilate each other. That could be considered the same single particle switching direction in time.
- kevindamm 2y agoIndeed, that's the classic example given for a Feynman diagram and it shows the presence of a positron and its movement along -t. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_diagram https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_diagram
- egypturnash 2y agoA succinct explanation of this theory and some of its consequences can be found here: https://ia600903.us.archive.org/24/items/dr_watchstop_adventures_in_time_and_space/dr_watchstop_adventures_in_time_and_space.pdf https://ia600903.us.archive.org/24/items/dr_watchstop_advent... Switch the PDF display to single-page and find page 33.
- fragmede 2y ago(which is page 35 of the PDF)
- mutedpossibly 2y agothey are all the same pages, just at different points in time
- kazinator 2y agoThat's just an illusion; it's only one page, going forward and backward in time. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
- mensetmanusman 2y agohttps://youtu.be/pq-L3VCSnwU?si=tJYaISHHqOJ2O-bz https://youtu.be/pq-L3VCSnwU?si=tJYaISHHqOJ2O-bz This is a fun discussion which touches on how deep the matter rabbit hole goes.
- datavirtue 2y agoI was watching this the other day. "Matter is frozen light." It led to a video on refraction which seemed to tie it all together and drive home how useful field equations/models are in a practical sense.
- farhanhubble 2y agoSince the wave function of an electron is unbounded in space, can't the wave functions of all electrons in the universe be seen as one giant wave function?
- MichaelZuo 2y agoThere Is Only One Wavefunction! (of unbounded complexity)
- xdavidliu 2y agothough that wave function is very closely approximately separable into individual particle wavefunctiond
- blamestross 2y agoSure, but like most "interpretations" in physics, would that be a useful thing to do?
- bhaney 2y agoThe wave functions of all everythings can be (and often are) seen as one giant wave function.
- dingnuts 2y agosounds like something you'd hear someone say while passing the blunt.. not that it makes it less true, just, you know, it's so bizarre.. and extra bizarre that the guy with the blunt is kind of right
- datavirtue 2y agoA wise man once said: "'ere."
- ozfive 2y agoThis article makes Richard Feynman seem like a thieving asshole. Like Edison to Tesla.
- ClassyJacket 2y ago"Dave, hurry up. It's my turn with the electron. I want to watch Love Island."
- ThinkBeat 2y agoWhenever I read "It's estimated that there are around X ys in the observable universe." How in the hell could you figure that out, when there are a lot of things in physics and astronomy that we do not yet know how works, nor how they are composed. It is the ultimate "estimate how long it will take to implement this computer system based on this napkin drawing I made in 3 minutes ago".
- kromem 2y agoThe only problem with the argument against it based on baryonic asymmetry is that if you cut a knot in half and look at one half of it, there's an entire other half you aren't seeing. With this in mind, this idea is particularly fun if paired with something like Neil Turok's CPT symmetric universe (i.e. the other side of the knot).
- jpster 2y agoELI5: what’s a “world line”?
- kazinator 2y agoWe don't need a cockamamie time travel theory like this to explain why electrons all share certain properties like mass. The entities of which there is only one instance are the fundamental constants. There is only one speed of light in vacuum, one Planck's constant and so on. The properties of the electron arise due to some behavior of the underlying electric field, governed by equations, which contain fundamental constants. The equations and constants explain why identical phenomena occur in locations separated by time and space. The existence and pervasiveness of the constants is a mystery, to be sure. But constants are not particles; we don't need to postulate that they travel forwards and backwards through time. They exist across time and space, to be sure.
- kazinator 2y agoSo, let's get this straight. All the power utilities of the world share one single electron. And they rent it out to billions of subscribers, concurrently, multiply booking that electron and charging everyone. What a racket!
- spacebacon 2y agoMaybe our known universe truly is a single electron behaving similar to scan lines on a TV at Planck scale in a higher dimension. Planck is the hz rate in this parable.