In the early days of quantum mechanics, the 1920s, the so-called "wave function collapse" or "measurement problem" arose. The problem centered around the question of at what point is the final result decided upon when a measurement of a quantum particle is made. In 1956 Hugh Everett III developed the many worlds interpretation (MWI) as his doctoral thesis at Princeton University. According to MWI, the Schrödinger wave equation doesn't ever collapse. Instead, the entire universe splits into as many parts as necessary, perhaps an infinite number, so that every possible result of a quantum measurement become realities in different universes. In the essay below, I uncover a serious mathematical problem with MWI as it is currently formulated and offer my own alternative interpretation called the "Many Alices Interpretation." I also offer a solution to the long-standing "measurement problem."
The document discusses quantum mechanics and three interpretations of its formalism: the Copenhagen interpretation, the many-worlds interpretation, and the transactional interpretation. It describes four quantum paradoxes around non-locality, wave-particle duality, and wave function collapse. Each interpretation aims to resolve these paradoxes while linking the mathematical formalism to physical phenomena.
Gravity: Superstrings or Entropy? A Modest Proffer from an Amateur ScientistJohn47Wind
This essay evaluates the promise that superstring theory will culminate in a quantum theory of gravity that unifies all the forces of nature into one package. In particular, the proponents of superstring theory promise that it will show how all forces of nature are “unified” at high energies. The essay traces the history of string theory from its humble beginnings in the 1960s, to explain the scattering of sub-atomic particles, to its culmination as five different string theories that supposedly comprise a yet-to-be defined theory named M-theory. In contrast, this essay presents a simple theory of gravity based on entropy that is distributed throughout space. A surprising consequence of entropic gravity is that Newton’s constant, G, has been decreasing over the life of universe, which fulfills the unfulfilled promise made by string theorists. Moreover, this consequence can be tested experimentally, unlike string theory, which makes no testable predictions.
The document discusses interpretations of quantum mechanics including the Copenhagen interpretation, many-worlds interpretation, and transactional interpretation. It summarizes four quantum paradoxes around wave-particle duality, quantum measurement, and non-locality. It then provides more details on the transactional interpretation, explaining how it uses advanced and retarded waves to describe quantum events and resolve the paradoxes without needing observers or wavefunction collapse. Finally, it discusses how interpretations cannot be experimentally tested but notes one potential exception with a new experiment.
A semi-serious critical commentary of what science says about the universe, exposing some of the flaws about the current models. The author concludes that the universe is comprised of information, with space and time being essentially forms of information censorship. He backs this up with an example of how nature conspires to prevent us from destroying information. There are several appendices that expand on the ideas presented in the main body of the essay. Written in a somewhat humorous vein, the ideas presented are nonetheless factual, based on the author's understanding of the current state of scientific knowledge. The essay summarizes some key concepts and quotations from Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Hermann Minkowski, Arthur Eddington, Niels Bohr, Boris Podolski, Nathan Rosen, Kurt Gödel, John Bell, John Wheeler, Richard Feynman, Claude Shannon, Alan Turing, Benoit Mandelbrot, Erik Verlinde, Leonard Susskind and others.
The document discusses quantum mechanics and three interpretations of it: the Copenhagen interpretation, the Many-Worlds interpretation, and the Transactional interpretation. It describes some key aspects of each interpretation, such as how they explain wave function collapse, the role of observers, and how they address paradoxes in quantum mechanics like non-locality. The Copenhagen interpretation relies on observer knowledge, the Many-Worlds interpretation proposes the existence of parallel worlds, and the Transactional interpretation describes quantum events as transactions involving advanced and retarded waves.
1) The document discusses the current state of confusion in modern physics, specifically in cosmology and particle physics.
2) It examines various theories for the origin and evolution of the universe, such as inflationary theory and multiverse theory, which leave many questions unanswered about what caused the Big Bang and how the laws of physics emerged.
3) It also explores mysteries in particle physics like why particles have the properties they do, such as mass and charge, and how symmetry is broken, pointing out many unknowns in current models.
This document discusses the current state of confusion in physics regarding the origins and development of the universe. It covers several key topics:
1) The inflationary theory proposes the universe rapidly expanded from something smaller than a proton but does not explain what caused the Big Bang. Cosmologists debate what preceded it.
2) Some propose the universe emerged from a quantum fluctuation, though how order developed from randomness is unclear.
3) For laws of physics to exist at the Big Bang implies a great mathematician/physicist predated the universe.
4) Explanations like multiverse theory raise more questions than answers and seem like science fiction. Mystery substances like dark matter and dark energy are largely un
Removing Myths and Fantasies from ScienceJohn47Wind
A growing number of science authors, including Jim Baggott, Alexander Unzicker, Sheilla Jones, and Lee Smolin, have written about the so-called crisis in physics. The ongoing quest to unify Einstein's theory of gravity and quantum mechanics has so far produced a few interesting mathematical models and elaborate sand-castle fantasies, but these have mostly proven to be dead ends. Einstein, Bohr and the members of his Copenhagen team, Bekenstein and Hawking have provided all the necessary pieces. All scientists need to do is put them together. This essay is a recommendation from an amateur scientists on how to do this, explained in easy-to-understand prose.
The document discusses quantum mechanics and three interpretations of its formalism: the Copenhagen interpretation, the many-worlds interpretation, and the transactional interpretation. It describes four quantum paradoxes around non-locality, wave-particle duality, and wave function collapse. Each interpretation aims to resolve these paradoxes while linking the mathematical formalism to physical phenomena.
Gravity: Superstrings or Entropy? A Modest Proffer from an Amateur ScientistJohn47Wind
This essay evaluates the promise that superstring theory will culminate in a quantum theory of gravity that unifies all the forces of nature into one package. In particular, the proponents of superstring theory promise that it will show how all forces of nature are “unified” at high energies. The essay traces the history of string theory from its humble beginnings in the 1960s, to explain the scattering of sub-atomic particles, to its culmination as five different string theories that supposedly comprise a yet-to-be defined theory named M-theory. In contrast, this essay presents a simple theory of gravity based on entropy that is distributed throughout space. A surprising consequence of entropic gravity is that Newton’s constant, G, has been decreasing over the life of universe, which fulfills the unfulfilled promise made by string theorists. Moreover, this consequence can be tested experimentally, unlike string theory, which makes no testable predictions.
The document discusses interpretations of quantum mechanics including the Copenhagen interpretation, many-worlds interpretation, and transactional interpretation. It summarizes four quantum paradoxes around wave-particle duality, quantum measurement, and non-locality. It then provides more details on the transactional interpretation, explaining how it uses advanced and retarded waves to describe quantum events and resolve the paradoxes without needing observers or wavefunction collapse. Finally, it discusses how interpretations cannot be experimentally tested but notes one potential exception with a new experiment.
A semi-serious critical commentary of what science says about the universe, exposing some of the flaws about the current models. The author concludes that the universe is comprised of information, with space and time being essentially forms of information censorship. He backs this up with an example of how nature conspires to prevent us from destroying information. There are several appendices that expand on the ideas presented in the main body of the essay. Written in a somewhat humorous vein, the ideas presented are nonetheless factual, based on the author's understanding of the current state of scientific knowledge. The essay summarizes some key concepts and quotations from Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Hermann Minkowski, Arthur Eddington, Niels Bohr, Boris Podolski, Nathan Rosen, Kurt Gödel, John Bell, John Wheeler, Richard Feynman, Claude Shannon, Alan Turing, Benoit Mandelbrot, Erik Verlinde, Leonard Susskind and others.
The document discusses quantum mechanics and three interpretations of it: the Copenhagen interpretation, the Many-Worlds interpretation, and the Transactional interpretation. It describes some key aspects of each interpretation, such as how they explain wave function collapse, the role of observers, and how they address paradoxes in quantum mechanics like non-locality. The Copenhagen interpretation relies on observer knowledge, the Many-Worlds interpretation proposes the existence of parallel worlds, and the Transactional interpretation describes quantum events as transactions involving advanced and retarded waves.
1) The document discusses the current state of confusion in modern physics, specifically in cosmology and particle physics.
2) It examines various theories for the origin and evolution of the universe, such as inflationary theory and multiverse theory, which leave many questions unanswered about what caused the Big Bang and how the laws of physics emerged.
3) It also explores mysteries in particle physics like why particles have the properties they do, such as mass and charge, and how symmetry is broken, pointing out many unknowns in current models.
This document discusses the current state of confusion in physics regarding the origins and development of the universe. It covers several key topics:
1) The inflationary theory proposes the universe rapidly expanded from something smaller than a proton but does not explain what caused the Big Bang. Cosmologists debate what preceded it.
2) Some propose the universe emerged from a quantum fluctuation, though how order developed from randomness is unclear.
3) For laws of physics to exist at the Big Bang implies a great mathematician/physicist predated the universe.
4) Explanations like multiverse theory raise more questions than answers and seem like science fiction. Mystery substances like dark matter and dark energy are largely un
Removing Myths and Fantasies from ScienceJohn47Wind
A growing number of science authors, including Jim Baggott, Alexander Unzicker, Sheilla Jones, and Lee Smolin, have written about the so-called crisis in physics. The ongoing quest to unify Einstein's theory of gravity and quantum mechanics has so far produced a few interesting mathematical models and elaborate sand-castle fantasies, but these have mostly proven to be dead ends. Einstein, Bohr and the members of his Copenhagen team, Bekenstein and Hawking have provided all the necessary pieces. All scientists need to do is put them together. This essay is a recommendation from an amateur scientists on how to do this, explained in easy-to-understand prose.
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics Are Not "Incompatible"John47Wind
Many scientific journals, books, magazines and science web sites state that since Einstein’s theory of gravity doesn’t “fit” into the quantum theory of forces, a new quantum theory of gravity must be found. This essay explodes the prevailing scientific myth that relativity and quantum mechanics are somehow incompatible. The simple fact of the matter is that gravity is not a force at all, so trying to make it “fit” into quantum theory is impossible. This essay demonstrates that relativity and quantum physics are indeed different, but it’s simply a matter of scale. In fact they are perfect reflections of each other.
Order, Chaos and the End of ReductionismJohn47Wind
The author presents a case against reductionism based on the emergence of chaos and order from underlying non-linear processes. Since all theories are mathematical, and based on an underlying premise of linearity, the author contends that there is no hope that science will succeed in creating a theory of everything that is complete. The controversial subject of life and evolution are explored, exposing the fallacy of a reductionist explanation, and offering a theory of order emerging from chaos as being the creative process of the universe, leading all the way up to consciousness. The essay concludes with the possibility that the three-dimensional universe is a fractal boundary that separates order and chaos in a higher dimension. The author discusses the work of Claude Shannon, Benoit Mandelbrot, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrodinger, Erik Verlinde, John Wheeler, Richard Maurice Bucke, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and others. This is a companion piece to the essay "Is Science Solving the Reality Riddle?"
John Archibald Wheeler was one of the last of the great scientist-philosophers. He wore his science on his sleeve and wasn't ever afraid to go out on a limb with novel ideas or to admit he was wrong. He even would often engage in private brainstorming sessions in front of large audiences. A major problem struggled with is how the universe could be both self-contained and logically consistent, in light of Gödel's incompleteness theorem. He came to the conclusion we live in a participatory universe, perceptions of physical phenomena are generated by the observer instead of having been laid out as a preexisting external existence. He coined the term "It from Bit" to describe this new vision in his typical terse and pithy manner. The following essay highlights the salient features of Wheeler's interpretation and points out facts about the oft-misused term "information." The author concludes the essay by extrapolating Wheeler’s "It from Bit" into a new cosmological model.
The physical world as a virtual reality, Brian Whitwor.docxssusera34210
The physical world as a virtual reality, Brian Whitworth
2
The Physical World as a Virtual Reality
Brian Whitworth
Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand
E-mail: [email protected]
Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine
Sir Arthur Eddington
Abstract
This paper explores the idea that the universe is a virtual reality created by information
processing, and relates this strange idea to the findings of modern physics about the physical
world. The virtual reality concept is familiar to us from online worlds, but our world as a virtual
reality is usually a subject for science fiction rather than science. Yet logically the world could be
an information simulation running on a multi-dimensional space-time screen. Indeed, if the
essence of the universe is information, matter, charge, energy and movement could be aspects of
information, and the many conservation laws could be a single law of information conservation.
If the universe were a virtual reality, its creation at the big bang would no longer be paradoxical,
as every virtual system must be booted up. It is suggested that whether the world is an objective
reality or a virtual reality is a matter for science to resolve. Modern information science can
suggest how core physical properties like space, time, light, matter and movement could derive
from information processing. Such an approach could reconcile relativity and quantum theories,
with the former being how information processing creates space-time, and the latter how it
creates energy and matter.
Key words: Digital physics, virtual reality, information theory
Modern online games show that information processing can create virtual “worlds”, with their
own time, space, entities and objects, e.g. “The Sims”. However that our physical world is a
virtual reality (VR) is normally considered a topic of science fiction, religion or philosophy, not a
theory of physics. Yet the reader is asked to keep an open mind, as one should at least consider a
theory before rejecting it. This paper asks if a world that behaves just like the world we live in
could arise from a VR simulation. It first defines what VR theory entails, asks if it is logically
possible, then considers if it explains known facts better than other theories.
Strange Physics
While virtual reality theory seems strange, so do other current theories of physics, e.g. the many-
worlds view of quantum physics proposes that each quantum choice divides the universe into
parallel universes [1], so everything that can happen does in fact happen somewhere, in an
inconceivable “multi-verse’ of parallel universes. This is a minority view but surprisingly
popular. Even relatively main-stream physics theories are quite strange. Guth’s inflationary model
suggests that our universe is just one of many “bubble universes” produced by the big bang [2].
String theory suggests the physical world could have 9 s ...
1. Quantum entanglement describes a phenomenon where two quantum particles interact in such a way that they become linked regardless of distance, so that measuring one particle instantly affects the state of the other.
2. Einstein was critical of quantum mechanics and its implications of "spooky action at a distance," which led to the development of experiments to test theories of quantum entanglement.
3. Repeated experiments confirmed the existence of quantum entanglement and disproved Einstein's theories, showing that entangled particles are truly linked regardless of distance.
Quantum theory describes reality on the smallest scales and has led to many modern technologies. It describes phenomena like particles existing in multiple places at once, which contradicts classical notions of physics. Quantum mechanics emerged in the early 20th century through the works of scientists like Heisenberg, Schrodinger and Planck, and provides the basis for chemistry, biology, electronics and more. The Islamic perspective is that Allah is simultaneously everywhere in the universe and closer than our jugular vein, demonstrating a duality consistent with quantum theory.
For a long time, theoretical physicists have dreamed of the day when the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics would be combined to create the Theory of Everything. It often stated that such a theory would be so simple and concise that the whole thing could be condensed into a simple equation that would fit on a T-shirt.
It was clear to me that classic material reductionism could not provide a path to that laudable goal, so I undertook an investigation to see what could replace it. That investigation spanned almost 4½ years, and it was documented step-by-step in my essay Order, Chaos and the End of Reductionism. This research led me to several dead ends, blind alleys, and self contradictions. What I ultimately discovered was that Einstein's field equations of the general theory of relativity actually provide an exact solution for the universe as a whole, whereas these laws are recapitulated on smaller scales as approximations for weak-field interactions.
Combining this principle with the principle of maximal entropy led to some surprising conclusions, summarized by a simple equation of state that can easily fit on a T-shirt that captures the essence of the Theory of Everything.
The document contains summaries of several articles on topics in cosmology and the search for extraterrestrial life. It discusses theories such as inflationary cosmology and the possibility of an infinite number of bubble universes. It also discusses the possibility of life on other planets and efforts to search for signals of intelligent life through the SETI Institute. While no confirmed signals have been detected so far, the discovery of an artificial signal would have huge scientific and social implications.
This document provides an introduction to concepts about the etheric ocean and alternative theories of physics. It discusses the classical concept of an ether that was believed to fill all of space, and how Einstein's theory of relativity rejected the notion of the ether's existence. However, the author believes that recent discoveries support the existence of an ether. The document aims to present a revised concept of the ether as fragmented digital points that make up an etheric ocean or ball, and how this could help explain phenomena like gravity, electromagnetism, and the appearance and disappearance of particles. It seeks to provide a unified theory of the fundamental forces and address open questions in modern physics.
John wheeler, physicist biocentrism dictates that human consciousness shapes...Julio Banks
Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking?
Eminent physicist John Wheeler says he has only enough time left to work on one idea: that human consciousness shapes not only the present but the past as well
This article is a "Verbatim" edition copied from the Internet into PDF. This article is worthy of a wide discemination as it connects the ungerse to human existence. It is ironic that Pythagoras stated "Now thyself first, then you will know the universe and God" (Paraphrased) while Aristotle stated "“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” ; these two (2) quotes, combined, state that it is wise to learn from cosmology as the universe is the state set for human existence and this is the idea of Biocentrism.
This document provides an introduction to quantum mechanics and quantum computing. It discusses key topics in quantum mechanics including the nanometer scale, the double slit experiment, spin, and the Stern-Gerlach experiment. It also covers early theories in quantum mechanics such as complementarity, wave-particle duality, Copenhagen interpretation, and Schrodinger's cat. The document then introduces basic concepts in quantum computing including qubits, superposition, probability amplitudes, state vectors, and the bra-ket notation. It concludes by discussing how quantum computing applies concepts from quantum mechanics.
This document provides an introduction to quantum mechanics and quantum computing. It discusses key topics in quantum mechanics including the nanometer scale, the double slit experiment, spin, and the Stern-Gerlach experiment. It also covers early theories in quantum mechanics such as complementarity, wave-particle duality, Copenhagen interpretation, and Schrodinger's cat. The document then introduces basic concepts in quantum computing including qubits, superposition, probability amplitudes, state vectors, and the bra-ket notation. It concludes by discussing how quantum computing applies concepts from quantum mechanics.
Quantum entanglement allows two particles to be correlated in such a way that measuring one particle instantly affects the state of the other, even when separated by large distances. Einstein was skeptical of this "spooky action at a distance," but experiments have confirmed that quantum entanglement violates locality by demonstrating correlations between distant particles that match predictions. While information is not actually transmitted faster than light, the measurement of one particle's properties, such as spin, instantly determines the properties of the entangled particle regardless of distance.
On request from a friend - a journey that starts from Young's double split experiment and ends up with fundamental questions about the nature of reality and the essence of science...
TheSource - Metaphysics of an Amateur ScientistJohn47Wind
Physicists, cosmologists, and metaphysicists have many unanswered questions like, “How did the universe begin?”, “Are there other universes beyond our own?”, “What is the true shape and geometry of the universe?”, “What are the fundamental constituents of matter and their interactions?”, “Why is there something instead of nothing?”, and the Biggie, “How did the universe come into being?” Some physicists brush off the last question by proclaiming it emerged from “a quantum fluctuation” in the vacuum. But as John A. Wheeler observed, “The quantum theory of fluctuations of geometry tells us that the concepts of ‘before’ and ‘after’ lose all application at distances of order the Planck length or less. If the concept of time fails anywhere, it must fail everywhere.” Wheeler eventually arrived at his own conclusion, “Omnibus ex nihil ducendis sufficit unum (one principle suffices to obtain everything from nothing).” The search for that one principle occupied much of Wheeler’s time near the end of his career, and he sometimes expressed it as a “self-excited circuit” based on the principle that “the boundary of a boundary is zero.” Gottfried Leibniz defined the fundamental unit existence using a concept known as Monadology, wherein monads are the simplest, most basic units of existence, characterized by their internal activity, each perceiving and reflecting existence from its own unique perspective. The following essay is explores the idea of how time and space could have emerged from nothing – a dimensionless, boundless, timeless, and spaceless Source – followed by everything else called physical reality.
This essay describes several unresolved paradoxes involving black holes. It comes to the astounding conclusion, which is easily proved, that true black holes do not exist. The secret stems from the fact that gravitation has negative energy. With matter compressed within the Schwarzschild radius, negative gravitational energy completely cancels the mass-energy inside, resulting in M=0, a result that Abhas Mitra came up with from his own derivation of the Schwarzschild metric. This essay uses a minimal amount of mathematics, making it suitable for the general audience.
In 1937 James Jeans wrote, “Today there is a wide measure of agreement, which on the physical side of science approaches almost unanimity, that the stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter...we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter.” Shortly after Jeans wrote this, the onset of WWII redirected the stream of knowledge back to the machine model of the universe with science research becoming a gigantic engineering project committed to building weapons of mass destruction. Ever since then, scientific research based on material reductionism supported by “Big Science” has been stumbling into one blind alley after another, finally culminating in string theory. Lately however, the stream of knowledge has begun shifting back toward a non-mechanical, holographic model. This shift is clearly reflected in the most recent writings of John Archibald Wheeler, whose career spanned the period from 1933 until his death in 2008. This short essay summarizes a consciousness-based holographic model of the universe.
The common explanation for global warming is faulty, leaving even those trained in the sciences unconvinced and skeptical about the validity of climate change. However, global warming is very real and it is definitely being caused by so-called "greenhouse" gases, even though the term "greenhouse" has no bearing on the actual physical phenomena taking place. This essay properly explains the physical mechanisms of IR-absorbing gases in the Earth's atmosphere, offering a more convincing explanation of what is really going on. The essay discusses some of the possible ramifications of global warming, and counsels for erring on the side of caution. On the other hand, there have been fraudulent scientific claims, such as the ozone-depletion theory, which diminishes the integrity of science and causes skepticism among the general public. In an appendix, the author presents the flaws in the ozone depletion theory based on sound chemical and thermodynamic principles.
This essay is a compilation of ideas, opinions, and conjectures from two previous essays, "Is Science Solving the Reality Riddle," and "Order, Chaos, and the End of Reductionism," and was expanded to include subsequent essays. It is very much a work in progress and has been repeatedly amended when necessary. The author concludes that current scientific theories are incomplete and limit our understanding of nature in a fundamental way, the current description of how the universe eveolved is wrong, and a new evolutionary paradigm is presented that explains both the physical and mental evolutionary processes.
The current scientific paradigm of material reductionism has problems accommodating a theory of the conscious mind, so it defines away the problem by claiming that consciousness equals neuron activity. That claim does not hold up to preponderance of evidence that proves an alternate state of consciousness, called a near death experience, can and does occur even after trauma to the brain ceases all neuron activity. Furthermore, NDE subjects report that their minds are far more lucid in that state than when they are awake or dreaming. Many NDE subjects get a clear impression that life is meant for learning and that being present in physical bodies is necessary for that to happen. The essay includes a discussion about the Hameroff-Penrose work on microtubules in brain neurons, which could be the actual seat of consciousness and could provide a link between the normal and the paranormal, and ends with an unusual twist.
Nature is quirky. Whenever things don't quite match up, She changes them so they will. The results often seem to be bizarre and nonsensical, but the more you study it you realize how profoundly wise Nature is. It all started with a thought experiment that Einstein said he came up with at around the age of 16. The young Einstein wondered what would happen if he chased a light beam and caught up with it. This essay describes two of the most important discoveries in science: The Special Theory of Relativity and the General Theory of Relativity. Both of these discoveries were made by a single man, Albert Einstein, over a period of one decade (1905 – 1915). This essay is directed at an audience of amateur scientists like myself. I will approach these two theories on the basis of their underlying principles, deriving as much as possible using basic geometry and a bit of elementary calculus. I will not go into the depth needed to become a “relativist.” Mastery of general relativity would require a good working knowledge of tensors, which is beyond the scope of this essay. Nevertheless, I think amateur scientists like myself will get something useful out of it.
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics Are Not "Incompatible"John47Wind
Many scientific journals, books, magazines and science web sites state that since Einstein’s theory of gravity doesn’t “fit” into the quantum theory of forces, a new quantum theory of gravity must be found. This essay explodes the prevailing scientific myth that relativity and quantum mechanics are somehow incompatible. The simple fact of the matter is that gravity is not a force at all, so trying to make it “fit” into quantum theory is impossible. This essay demonstrates that relativity and quantum physics are indeed different, but it’s simply a matter of scale. In fact they are perfect reflections of each other.
Order, Chaos and the End of ReductionismJohn47Wind
The author presents a case against reductionism based on the emergence of chaos and order from underlying non-linear processes. Since all theories are mathematical, and based on an underlying premise of linearity, the author contends that there is no hope that science will succeed in creating a theory of everything that is complete. The controversial subject of life and evolution are explored, exposing the fallacy of a reductionist explanation, and offering a theory of order emerging from chaos as being the creative process of the universe, leading all the way up to consciousness. The essay concludes with the possibility that the three-dimensional universe is a fractal boundary that separates order and chaos in a higher dimension. The author discusses the work of Claude Shannon, Benoit Mandelbrot, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrodinger, Erik Verlinde, John Wheeler, Richard Maurice Bucke, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and others. This is a companion piece to the essay "Is Science Solving the Reality Riddle?"
John Archibald Wheeler was one of the last of the great scientist-philosophers. He wore his science on his sleeve and wasn't ever afraid to go out on a limb with novel ideas or to admit he was wrong. He even would often engage in private brainstorming sessions in front of large audiences. A major problem struggled with is how the universe could be both self-contained and logically consistent, in light of Gödel's incompleteness theorem. He came to the conclusion we live in a participatory universe, perceptions of physical phenomena are generated by the observer instead of having been laid out as a preexisting external existence. He coined the term "It from Bit" to describe this new vision in his typical terse and pithy manner. The following essay highlights the salient features of Wheeler's interpretation and points out facts about the oft-misused term "information." The author concludes the essay by extrapolating Wheeler’s "It from Bit" into a new cosmological model.
The physical world as a virtual reality, Brian Whitwor.docxssusera34210
The physical world as a virtual reality, Brian Whitworth
2
The Physical World as a Virtual Reality
Brian Whitworth
Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand
E-mail: [email protected]
Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine
Sir Arthur Eddington
Abstract
This paper explores the idea that the universe is a virtual reality created by information
processing, and relates this strange idea to the findings of modern physics about the physical
world. The virtual reality concept is familiar to us from online worlds, but our world as a virtual
reality is usually a subject for science fiction rather than science. Yet logically the world could be
an information simulation running on a multi-dimensional space-time screen. Indeed, if the
essence of the universe is information, matter, charge, energy and movement could be aspects of
information, and the many conservation laws could be a single law of information conservation.
If the universe were a virtual reality, its creation at the big bang would no longer be paradoxical,
as every virtual system must be booted up. It is suggested that whether the world is an objective
reality or a virtual reality is a matter for science to resolve. Modern information science can
suggest how core physical properties like space, time, light, matter and movement could derive
from information processing. Such an approach could reconcile relativity and quantum theories,
with the former being how information processing creates space-time, and the latter how it
creates energy and matter.
Key words: Digital physics, virtual reality, information theory
Modern online games show that information processing can create virtual “worlds”, with their
own time, space, entities and objects, e.g. “The Sims”. However that our physical world is a
virtual reality (VR) is normally considered a topic of science fiction, religion or philosophy, not a
theory of physics. Yet the reader is asked to keep an open mind, as one should at least consider a
theory before rejecting it. This paper asks if a world that behaves just like the world we live in
could arise from a VR simulation. It first defines what VR theory entails, asks if it is logically
possible, then considers if it explains known facts better than other theories.
Strange Physics
While virtual reality theory seems strange, so do other current theories of physics, e.g. the many-
worlds view of quantum physics proposes that each quantum choice divides the universe into
parallel universes [1], so everything that can happen does in fact happen somewhere, in an
inconceivable “multi-verse’ of parallel universes. This is a minority view but surprisingly
popular. Even relatively main-stream physics theories are quite strange. Guth’s inflationary model
suggests that our universe is just one of many “bubble universes” produced by the big bang [2].
String theory suggests the physical world could have 9 s ...
1. Quantum entanglement describes a phenomenon where two quantum particles interact in such a way that they become linked regardless of distance, so that measuring one particle instantly affects the state of the other.
2. Einstein was critical of quantum mechanics and its implications of "spooky action at a distance," which led to the development of experiments to test theories of quantum entanglement.
3. Repeated experiments confirmed the existence of quantum entanglement and disproved Einstein's theories, showing that entangled particles are truly linked regardless of distance.
Quantum theory describes reality on the smallest scales and has led to many modern technologies. It describes phenomena like particles existing in multiple places at once, which contradicts classical notions of physics. Quantum mechanics emerged in the early 20th century through the works of scientists like Heisenberg, Schrodinger and Planck, and provides the basis for chemistry, biology, electronics and more. The Islamic perspective is that Allah is simultaneously everywhere in the universe and closer than our jugular vein, demonstrating a duality consistent with quantum theory.
For a long time, theoretical physicists have dreamed of the day when the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics would be combined to create the Theory of Everything. It often stated that such a theory would be so simple and concise that the whole thing could be condensed into a simple equation that would fit on a T-shirt.
It was clear to me that classic material reductionism could not provide a path to that laudable goal, so I undertook an investigation to see what could replace it. That investigation spanned almost 4½ years, and it was documented step-by-step in my essay Order, Chaos and the End of Reductionism. This research led me to several dead ends, blind alleys, and self contradictions. What I ultimately discovered was that Einstein's field equations of the general theory of relativity actually provide an exact solution for the universe as a whole, whereas these laws are recapitulated on smaller scales as approximations for weak-field interactions.
Combining this principle with the principle of maximal entropy led to some surprising conclusions, summarized by a simple equation of state that can easily fit on a T-shirt that captures the essence of the Theory of Everything.
The document contains summaries of several articles on topics in cosmology and the search for extraterrestrial life. It discusses theories such as inflationary cosmology and the possibility of an infinite number of bubble universes. It also discusses the possibility of life on other planets and efforts to search for signals of intelligent life through the SETI Institute. While no confirmed signals have been detected so far, the discovery of an artificial signal would have huge scientific and social implications.
This document provides an introduction to concepts about the etheric ocean and alternative theories of physics. It discusses the classical concept of an ether that was believed to fill all of space, and how Einstein's theory of relativity rejected the notion of the ether's existence. However, the author believes that recent discoveries support the existence of an ether. The document aims to present a revised concept of the ether as fragmented digital points that make up an etheric ocean or ball, and how this could help explain phenomena like gravity, electromagnetism, and the appearance and disappearance of particles. It seeks to provide a unified theory of the fundamental forces and address open questions in modern physics.
John wheeler, physicist biocentrism dictates that human consciousness shapes...Julio Banks
Does the Universe Exist if We're Not Looking?
Eminent physicist John Wheeler says he has only enough time left to work on one idea: that human consciousness shapes not only the present but the past as well
This article is a "Verbatim" edition copied from the Internet into PDF. This article is worthy of a wide discemination as it connects the ungerse to human existence. It is ironic that Pythagoras stated "Now thyself first, then you will know the universe and God" (Paraphrased) while Aristotle stated "“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” ; these two (2) quotes, combined, state that it is wise to learn from cosmology as the universe is the state set for human existence and this is the idea of Biocentrism.
This document provides an introduction to quantum mechanics and quantum computing. It discusses key topics in quantum mechanics including the nanometer scale, the double slit experiment, spin, and the Stern-Gerlach experiment. It also covers early theories in quantum mechanics such as complementarity, wave-particle duality, Copenhagen interpretation, and Schrodinger's cat. The document then introduces basic concepts in quantum computing including qubits, superposition, probability amplitudes, state vectors, and the bra-ket notation. It concludes by discussing how quantum computing applies concepts from quantum mechanics.
This document provides an introduction to quantum mechanics and quantum computing. It discusses key topics in quantum mechanics including the nanometer scale, the double slit experiment, spin, and the Stern-Gerlach experiment. It also covers early theories in quantum mechanics such as complementarity, wave-particle duality, Copenhagen interpretation, and Schrodinger's cat. The document then introduces basic concepts in quantum computing including qubits, superposition, probability amplitudes, state vectors, and the bra-ket notation. It concludes by discussing how quantum computing applies concepts from quantum mechanics.
Quantum entanglement allows two particles to be correlated in such a way that measuring one particle instantly affects the state of the other, even when separated by large distances. Einstein was skeptical of this "spooky action at a distance," but experiments have confirmed that quantum entanglement violates locality by demonstrating correlations between distant particles that match predictions. While information is not actually transmitted faster than light, the measurement of one particle's properties, such as spin, instantly determines the properties of the entangled particle regardless of distance.
On request from a friend - a journey that starts from Young's double split experiment and ends up with fundamental questions about the nature of reality and the essence of science...
TheSource - Metaphysics of an Amateur ScientistJohn47Wind
Physicists, cosmologists, and metaphysicists have many unanswered questions like, “How did the universe begin?”, “Are there other universes beyond our own?”, “What is the true shape and geometry of the universe?”, “What are the fundamental constituents of matter and their interactions?”, “Why is there something instead of nothing?”, and the Biggie, “How did the universe come into being?” Some physicists brush off the last question by proclaiming it emerged from “a quantum fluctuation” in the vacuum. But as John A. Wheeler observed, “The quantum theory of fluctuations of geometry tells us that the concepts of ‘before’ and ‘after’ lose all application at distances of order the Planck length or less. If the concept of time fails anywhere, it must fail everywhere.” Wheeler eventually arrived at his own conclusion, “Omnibus ex nihil ducendis sufficit unum (one principle suffices to obtain everything from nothing).” The search for that one principle occupied much of Wheeler’s time near the end of his career, and he sometimes expressed it as a “self-excited circuit” based on the principle that “the boundary of a boundary is zero.” Gottfried Leibniz defined the fundamental unit existence using a concept known as Monadology, wherein monads are the simplest, most basic units of existence, characterized by their internal activity, each perceiving and reflecting existence from its own unique perspective. The following essay is explores the idea of how time and space could have emerged from nothing – a dimensionless, boundless, timeless, and spaceless Source – followed by everything else called physical reality.
This essay describes several unresolved paradoxes involving black holes. It comes to the astounding conclusion, which is easily proved, that true black holes do not exist. The secret stems from the fact that gravitation has negative energy. With matter compressed within the Schwarzschild radius, negative gravitational energy completely cancels the mass-energy inside, resulting in M=0, a result that Abhas Mitra came up with from his own derivation of the Schwarzschild metric. This essay uses a minimal amount of mathematics, making it suitable for the general audience.
In 1937 James Jeans wrote, “Today there is a wide measure of agreement, which on the physical side of science approaches almost unanimity, that the stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter...we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter.” Shortly after Jeans wrote this, the onset of WWII redirected the stream of knowledge back to the machine model of the universe with science research becoming a gigantic engineering project committed to building weapons of mass destruction. Ever since then, scientific research based on material reductionism supported by “Big Science” has been stumbling into one blind alley after another, finally culminating in string theory. Lately however, the stream of knowledge has begun shifting back toward a non-mechanical, holographic model. This shift is clearly reflected in the most recent writings of John Archibald Wheeler, whose career spanned the period from 1933 until his death in 2008. This short essay summarizes a consciousness-based holographic model of the universe.
The common explanation for global warming is faulty, leaving even those trained in the sciences unconvinced and skeptical about the validity of climate change. However, global warming is very real and it is definitely being caused by so-called "greenhouse" gases, even though the term "greenhouse" has no bearing on the actual physical phenomena taking place. This essay properly explains the physical mechanisms of IR-absorbing gases in the Earth's atmosphere, offering a more convincing explanation of what is really going on. The essay discusses some of the possible ramifications of global warming, and counsels for erring on the side of caution. On the other hand, there have been fraudulent scientific claims, such as the ozone-depletion theory, which diminishes the integrity of science and causes skepticism among the general public. In an appendix, the author presents the flaws in the ozone depletion theory based on sound chemical and thermodynamic principles.
This essay is a compilation of ideas, opinions, and conjectures from two previous essays, "Is Science Solving the Reality Riddle," and "Order, Chaos, and the End of Reductionism," and was expanded to include subsequent essays. It is very much a work in progress and has been repeatedly amended when necessary. The author concludes that current scientific theories are incomplete and limit our understanding of nature in a fundamental way, the current description of how the universe eveolved is wrong, and a new evolutionary paradigm is presented that explains both the physical and mental evolutionary processes.
The current scientific paradigm of material reductionism has problems accommodating a theory of the conscious mind, so it defines away the problem by claiming that consciousness equals neuron activity. That claim does not hold up to preponderance of evidence that proves an alternate state of consciousness, called a near death experience, can and does occur even after trauma to the brain ceases all neuron activity. Furthermore, NDE subjects report that their minds are far more lucid in that state than when they are awake or dreaming. Many NDE subjects get a clear impression that life is meant for learning and that being present in physical bodies is necessary for that to happen. The essay includes a discussion about the Hameroff-Penrose work on microtubules in brain neurons, which could be the actual seat of consciousness and could provide a link between the normal and the paranormal, and ends with an unusual twist.
Nature is quirky. Whenever things don't quite match up, She changes them so they will. The results often seem to be bizarre and nonsensical, but the more you study it you realize how profoundly wise Nature is. It all started with a thought experiment that Einstein said he came up with at around the age of 16. The young Einstein wondered what would happen if he chased a light beam and caught up with it. This essay describes two of the most important discoveries in science: The Special Theory of Relativity and the General Theory of Relativity. Both of these discoveries were made by a single man, Albert Einstein, over a period of one decade (1905 – 1915). This essay is directed at an audience of amateur scientists like myself. I will approach these two theories on the basis of their underlying principles, deriving as much as possible using basic geometry and a bit of elementary calculus. I will not go into the depth needed to become a “relativist.” Mastery of general relativity would require a good working knowledge of tensors, which is beyond the scope of this essay. Nevertheless, I think amateur scientists like myself will get something useful out of it.
The Hidden Secrets of General Relativity RevealedJohn47Wind
It has been more than 100 years since Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity was published. It is one of the most successful theories created by the human brain, surviving every test that attempted to falsify it. However, the implications of general relativity are incredibly deep and go far beyond the humdrum analyses found in most physics textbooks. Recent discoveries have shown that general relativity and quantum mechanics are based on the common principle that our universe isn’t just relativistic but is radically so, and objective reality is a mirage generated in the mind of the observer. Temporal asymmetry, or the curvature of time, is the key to understanding this. This essay reveals a few of the hidden secrets of general relativity, which I expect will offend materialists but am hopeful will delight idealists.
The author examines available evidence to examine the question of "Are we alone?", i.e., whether humans are the only intelligent species in the Milky Way, or if the galaxy is teeming with advanced civilizations. The author discusses barriers to physical contact with extra-terrestrial beings and addresses Fermi's paradox "Where is everybody?" using the Drake Equation. The final answer is surprising, disturbing, and inspirational all at the same time. The appendix analyzes the strategy of the SETI project from and engineer's point of view, and offers some advice to maximize the chances of finding alien civilizations who may be transmitting beacon signals to announce their presence: Look for them in the Andromeda galaxy.
ESR spectroscopy in liquid food and beverages.pptxPRIYANKA PATEL
With increasing population, people need to rely on packaged food stuffs. Packaging of food materials requires the preservation of food. There are various methods for the treatment of food to preserve them and irradiation treatment of food is one of them. It is the most common and the most harmless method for the food preservation as it does not alter the necessary micronutrients of food materials. Although irradiated food doesn’t cause any harm to the human health but still the quality assessment of food is required to provide consumers with necessary information about the food. ESR spectroscopy is the most sophisticated way to investigate the quality of the food and the free radicals induced during the processing of the food. ESR spin trapping technique is useful for the detection of highly unstable radicals in the food. The antioxidant capability of liquid food and beverages in mainly performed by spin trapping technique.
ESA/ACT Science Coffee: Diego Blas - Gravitational wave detection with orbita...Advanced-Concepts-Team
Presentation in the Science Coffee of the Advanced Concepts Team of the European Space Agency on the 07.06.2024.
Speaker: Diego Blas (IFAE/ICREA)
Title: Gravitational wave detection with orbital motion of Moon and artificial
Abstract:
In this talk I will describe some recent ideas to find gravitational waves from supermassive black holes or of primordial origin by studying their secular effect on the orbital motion of the Moon or satellites that are laser ranged.
The binding of cosmological structures by massless topological defectsSérgio Sacani
Assuming spherical symmetry and weak field, it is shown that if one solves the Poisson equation or the Einstein field
equations sourced by a topological defect, i.e. a singularity of a very specific form, the result is a localized gravitational
field capable of driving flat rotation (i.e. Keplerian circular orbits at a constant speed for all radii) of test masses on a thin
spherical shell without any underlying mass. Moreover, a large-scale structure which exploits this solution by assembling
concentrically a number of such topological defects can establish a flat stellar or galactic rotation curve, and can also deflect
light in the same manner as an equipotential (isothermal) sphere. Thus, the need for dark matter or modified gravity theory is
mitigated, at least in part.
Immersive Learning That Works: Research Grounding and Paths ForwardLeonel Morgado
We will metaverse into the essence of immersive learning, into its three dimensions and conceptual models. This approach encompasses elements from teaching methodologies to social involvement, through organizational concerns and technologies. Challenging the perception of learning as knowledge transfer, we introduce a 'Uses, Practices & Strategies' model operationalized by the 'Immersive Learning Brain' and ‘Immersion Cube’ frameworks. This approach offers a comprehensive guide through the intricacies of immersive educational experiences and spotlighting research frontiers, along the immersion dimensions of system, narrative, and agency. Our discourse extends to stakeholders beyond the academic sphere, addressing the interests of technologists, instructional designers, and policymakers. We span various contexts, from formal education to organizational transformation to the new horizon of an AI-pervasive society. This keynote aims to unite the iLRN community in a collaborative journey towards a future where immersive learning research and practice coalesce, paving the way for innovative educational research and practice landscapes.
Authoring a personal GPT for your research and practice: How we created the Q...Leonel Morgado
Thematic analysis in qualitative research is a time-consuming and systematic task, typically done using teams. Team members must ground their activities on common understandings of the major concepts underlying the thematic analysis, and define criteria for its development. However, conceptual misunderstandings, equivocations, and lack of adherence to criteria are challenges to the quality and speed of this process. Given the distributed and uncertain nature of this process, we wondered if the tasks in thematic analysis could be supported by readily available artificial intelligence chatbots. Our early efforts point to potential benefits: not just saving time in the coding process but better adherence to criteria and grounding, by increasing triangulation between humans and artificial intelligence. This tutorial will provide a description and demonstration of the process we followed, as two academic researchers, to develop a custom ChatGPT to assist with qualitative coding in the thematic data analysis process of immersive learning accounts in a survey of the academic literature: QUAL-E Immersive Learning Thematic Analysis Helper. In the hands-on time, participants will try out QUAL-E and develop their ideas for their own qualitative coding ChatGPT. Participants that have the paid ChatGPT Plus subscription can create a draft of their assistants. The organizers will provide course materials and slide deck that participants will be able to utilize to continue development of their custom GPT. The paid subscription to ChatGPT Plus is not required to participate in this workshop, just for trying out personal GPTs during it.
PPT on Direct Seeded Rice presented at the three-day 'Training and Validation Workshop on Modules of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Technologies in South Asia' workshop on April 22, 2024.
Current Ms word generated power point presentation covers major details about the micronuclei test. It's significance and assays to conduct it. It is used to detect the micronuclei formation inside the cells of nearly every multicellular organism. It's formation takes place during chromosomal sepration at metaphase.
When I was asked to give a companion lecture in support of ‘The Philosophy of Science’ (https://shorturl.at/4pUXz) I decided not to walk through the detail of the many methodologies in order of use. Instead, I chose to employ a long standing, and ongoing, scientific development as an exemplar. And so, I chose the ever evolving story of Thermodynamics as a scientific investigation at its best.
Conducted over a period of >200 years, Thermodynamics R&D, and application, benefitted from the highest levels of professionalism, collaboration, and technical thoroughness. New layers of application, methodology, and practice were made possible by the progressive advance of technology. In turn, this has seen measurement and modelling accuracy continually improved at a micro and macro level.
Perhaps most importantly, Thermodynamics rapidly became a primary tool in the advance of applied science/engineering/technology, spanning micro-tech, to aerospace and cosmology. I can think of no better a story to illustrate the breadth of scientific methodologies and applications at their best.
Or: Beyond linear.
Abstract: Equivariant neural networks are neural networks that incorporate symmetries. The nonlinear activation functions in these networks result in interesting nonlinear equivariant maps between simple representations, and motivate the key player of this talk: piecewise linear representation theory.
Disclaimer: No one is perfect, so please mind that there might be mistakes and typos.
dtubbenhauer@gmail.com
Corrected slides: dtubbenhauer.com/talks.html
Describing and Interpreting an Immersive Learning Case with the Immersion Cub...Leonel Morgado
Current descriptions of immersive learning cases are often difficult or impossible to compare. This is due to a myriad of different options on what details to include, which aspects are relevant, and on the descriptive approaches employed. Also, these aspects often combine very specific details with more general guidelines or indicate intents and rationales without clarifying their implementation. In this paper we provide a method to describe immersive learning cases that is structured to enable comparisons, yet flexible enough to allow researchers and practitioners to decide which aspects to include. This method leverages a taxonomy that classifies educational aspects at three levels (uses, practices, and strategies) and then utilizes two frameworks, the Immersive Learning Brain and the Immersion Cube, to enable a structured description and interpretation of immersive learning cases. The method is then demonstrated on a published immersive learning case on training for wind turbine maintenance using virtual reality. Applying the method results in a structured artifact, the Immersive Learning Case Sheet, that tags the case with its proximal uses, practices, and strategies, and refines the free text case description to ensure that matching details are included. This contribution is thus a case description method in support of future comparative research of immersive learning cases. We then discuss how the resulting description and interpretation can be leveraged to change immersion learning cases, by enriching them (considering low-effort changes or additions) or innovating (exploring more challenging avenues of transformation). The method holds significant promise to support better-grounded research in immersive learning.
Remote Sensing and Computational, Evolutionary, Supercomputing, and Intellige...University of Maribor
Slides from talk:
Aleš Zamuda: Remote Sensing and Computational, Evolutionary, Supercomputing, and Intelligent Systems.
11th International Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering (IcETRAN), Niš, 3-6 June 2024
Inter-Society Networking Panel GRSS/MTT-S/CIS Panel Session: Promoting Connection and Cooperation
https://www.etran.rs/2024/en/home-english/
20240520 Planning a Circuit Simulator in JavaScript.pptx
Many Alices Interpretation
1. Many Alices Interpretation
Many Worlds According to One Amateur Scientist
by John J. Winders, Jr.
Alice image attribution: https://www.cleanpng.com/ under personal use license
2. Note to my readers:
You can access and download this essay and my other essays directly from the Amateur
Scientist Essays website using this link:
https://sites.google.com/site/amateurscientistessays/
You are free to download and share all of my essays without any restrictions, although it
would be very nice to credit my work when quoting directly from them.
If you would like to leave comments via email, you can send them using this link:
mailto:Amateurscientist@hotmail.com
3. Introduction
Sean Carroll is a very outspoken promoter of a conjecture about quantum mechanics called the Many
Worlds Interpretation. In Sean Carroll’s book, Something Deeply Hidden – Quantum Worlds and the
Emergence of Spacetime, he claims that nobody understands quantum mechanics, citing the Aesop’s
fable of the fox who cannot reach a delicious clump of grapes overhead. Out of frustration the fox says
the grapes were probably sour and he never wanted them anyway. According to Carroll, the fox
represents “physicists” and the grapes represent “understanding quantum mechanics.” I think the
problem goes much deeper than not understanding quantum mechanics; in fact, I think a significant
number of physicists don’t fully understand probability at all, which is what quantum mechanics is
based on. The reason is because probability is often extremely counter-intuitive.
Take for example the famous “Monty Hall Problem,” which Marilyn vos Savant once published in her
weekly column in “Parade” magazine based on the TV game show “The Price is Right.” The grand
prize is a car hidden behind one of three closed doors with goats hidden behind the other two. The
contestant must choose one of the three doors. After choosing one of the doors, host Monty Hall opens
one of the other two doors, revealing a goat. He then asks the contestant if she would like to stick with
her first choice or switch to the other closed door. With a quantum-mechanical interpretation, the car
has a “wave function” that translates into probabilities of finding it behind each of the doors, shown
below as the blue waves over the doors with each door having a probability of ⅓.
When Monty opens Door No. 3 revealing a goat, the wave function “collapses” around Door No. 2, and
the area of the wave (its probability) over Door No. 2 suddenly doubles to ⅔ as shown below.
Attribution: Door images courtesy of Freepik Company; goat image courtesy of Getty Images
-1-
4. When vos Savant correctly stated switching doors would double the chances of winning the car from ⅓
to ⅔, there were howls of protest from the readers of vos Savant’s column, some calling her stupid for
not realizing that the odds of winning the car are “obviously” the same for Door No. 1 and Door No. 2.
A few of them bragged about their advanced degrees in mathematics and physics, which only confirmed
what I suspected all along; i.e., even advanced degrees in mathematics or physics don’t guarantee
understanding conditional probabilities. It’s easy to show why revealing a goat behind Door No. 3
doubles the probability of finding the car behind Door No. 2: The a priori probability of finding the car
behind Door No. 2 Door No. 3 is P
∪ (C2)+P(C3)=⅔. Opening Door No. 3 to reveal a goat behind it,
G3, creates a new conditional probability P(C2 |G3)= ⅔ and “collapses” the original wave function.
The physics community considers “collapsing” a quantum wave function as a truly horrible thing to do,
naming it “the measurement problem.” After all, how can measuring an object possibly change its wave
function? Here’s what Carroll has to say about the measurement problem.
“What exactly a measurement is, and what happens when we measure something, and what this tells us about what’s really
happening behind the scenes: together, these questions constitute what’s called the measurement problem of quantum
mechanics. There is absolutely no consensus within physics or philosophy on how to solve the measurement problem,
although there are a number of promising ideas.”
Carroll concedes that no such measurement problem exists in classical mechanics. Well of course not.
When Monty Hall opens Door No. 3, this is a “measurement” that confirms there is a goat behind that
door, which necessarily changes the a priori probability P(C2) into a conditional probability P(C2 |G3)
from that measurement. But for some reason people cannot accept the fact that measuring a quantum
particle using a piece of lab equipment is in principle the same as opening a door and knowing what’s
behind it instead of guessing what it might be.
The Origin of Many Worlds
The symbol ψ stands for a wave function describing the quantum states of an isolated system. The
Schrödinger wave equation, ψ(x,t), is a special case that assigns complex numbers to ψ that evolves
deterministically through space and over time. For this case, the quantity |ψ(x,t)|2
is interpreted as the
probability of observing the particle in a specific region of space near x within a specific interval of
time near t. According to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, observing the particle
causes ψ(x,t) to “collapse.” This seems to makes sense because the old ψ(x,t) serves no purpose once
the particle has been pinned down to a particular place and time, so a new ψ(x,t) takes over. However,
many physicists consider ψ to be much more than just a mere mathematical expression; they believe ψ
to be a real physical object, and obviously real physical objects should not be destroyed by mere
observations or measurements.1
I believe the crux of the “measurement problem” stems from the
prevailing material reductionist paradigm in physics.
One of the “promising ideas” that Carroll mentions is the one that Hugh Everett III came up with in
1956 while working on his PhD thesis at Princeton University, becoming known as the Many Worlds
Interpretation or MWI.2
Much has been written about it in the literature. Like the fox in the tale of the
sour grapes, believers in MWI avoid the measurement problem by asserting that the wave function
never really collapses; instead, all possible quantum measurements are actualized by branching into
separate non-communicating parallel “worlds” (see the illustration on the following page).
1 Hmm … a physical object having complex values? Another problem is that ψ has dimensions of 1/√Length, which is
clearly a non-physical quantity. Nevertheless, some physicists still consider ψ to be the only physical object in the
universe, and furthermore the universe is an isolated system comprised of a single universal wave function.
2 John Wheeler was his thesis advisor. A copy of the “long thesis” published in 1973 is available here:
https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/81235/d8kp7v50b/
-2-
5. Alice makes a series of measurements of electron superposed spins states (1/√2 |U+1/√2 |D), where U
is “spin up” and D is “spin down.” Here, the probabilities of U and D are both 50%. According to the
“pop sci” version of MWI, the universe splits into two branches each time Alice measures spin: One
universe where a U spin electron has occurred and the other where a D spin electron has occurred.
Meanwhile, Alice splits into two versions of herself, one measuring U and the other measuring D.
After a second measurement, the two universes split again into four non-communicating parallel copies,
as shown on the left side of the diagram. Although none of the Alice clones can communicate with
other parallel copies, each of them has memories of upstream Alices from whom she had been cloned,
so each of the four Alices remembers performing two spin measurements. The results of those two
measurements are shown by the sets of U and D letters next to four Alices’ images in the left-hand
portion of the illustration above.
It’s All in the Mind
A lot of other people, including me, have trouble believing that entire universes would physically split
into two parts as the result of simple actions performed by a single human living on a small planet
revolving around a medium-size, nondescript, white star in a commonly-occurring spiral galaxy among
trillions of other galaxies. Then I came across a paper written by Max Tegmark with a very different
slant on MWI.3
While reading it, I had an “aha moment” that made me understand why so many
notable scientists, presumably including the great John A. Wheeler, embraced MWI.
If I read Tegmark’s argument correctly, then in a nutshell Alice is integrated into the superposition she is
measuring. So when she measures the spin of an electron, she observes both U and D at the same time,
but her conscious recollections split between them. Meanwhile, the universal wave function goes along
its merry way as if nothing happened. This is a very radical version of Wheeler’s participatory
universe, where everything we call “physical reality” is literally exists only in the mind of the observer,
who in this case is Alice. Therefore, I’m calling this the Many Alices Interpretation (MAI).
One consequence of MAI is that randomness and probability are just imaginary concepts of the mind.
Determinism still “rules” because ψ continues to evolve over time, undeterred by what humans might
believe is really happening. Let’s see how this plays out referring to the illustration above.
3 The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: Many Worlds or Many Words?
-3-
6. Alice makes two more spin measurements as illustrated under the heading “After 4 Measurements.”
Alice has now split into 16 versions of herself, each with a specific memory of four measurements as
shown by 16 sets of four U and D letters to the right of her images. If the Alices could confer with each
other, they would quickly see there were 64 total measurements with 32 of them being U and 32 of them
being D. They would thus conclude that the probability of U and D are both exactly 50%.
Unfortunately, the Alices cannot communicate among themselves so some of them do see a 2/2 split,
while others see 0/4, 1/3, 3/1 and 4/0 splits which would leave them rather unconvinced that U and D
probabilities are even close to 50%. But the interesting thing is that the 16 Alices themselves have been
grouped according to a binomial probability distribution with a U success rate of 50% as shown on the
far right of the figure. As the number of measurements increases into double and triple digits, the
binomial grouping of Alices becomes more and more concentrated near the 50% level. Thus, according
to MAI, “Alice” (whoever she really is) is more “likely” to be among those near the center of the
distribution, and she is most “likely” to believe the U probability is 50%.
Math Problems
The trouble with scenario is that as long as each Alice bifurcates into two parts, her clones will always
be grouped in binomial distributions with U=D=50%. For the general case (√α |U + √β |D), where
the weighting factors α and β are not equal, we start running into some mathematical problems. The
bifurcation strategy of splitting Alice into two parts per measurement won’t result in binomial
distributions with the correct U success rate equal to α. If α=k/n and β=(n-k)/n, where k and n are
integers, and Alice splits into n branches for each measurement she makes, and U is assigned to k
branches, and D is assigned to (n-k) branches, then and only then does a binomial distribution of Alices
with a U success rate α emerge. That’s quite a tall order, and I would expect someone who tries to
explain how the wave function handles all this math might have to do a great deal of hand waving.4
Another Way of Splitting Alice
There is an alternative that would allow a simple bifurcation technique to work with all values of α and
β. Instead of assigning an integer number of U and D in opposite branches, fractional values could be
assigned based on the values of α and β, resulting in fractional slices of Alice. This might present
problems for Alice living in fractional bodies, but at least the mathematics would work out in the end.
Looking at the results in the far right of the figure on Page 3, the table below shows the results when
α = 0.75 and β = 0.25. The first column describes the possible outcomes of four observations, the
second column shows the numbers of branches that match those descriptions, and the third column
shows the probabilities that Alice will measure the outcomes described in the first column.
Descriptions of
Measurements
Numbers of
Branches
Probabilities of Making
Measurements
0U & 4D 1 1 0.750
0.254
= 0.00390625
1U & 3D 4 4 0.751
0.253
= 0.04687500
2U & 2D 6 6 0.752
0.252
= 0.21093750
3U & 1D 4 4 0.753
0.251
= 0.42187500
4U & 0D 1 1 0.754
0.250
= 0.31640625
4 Pun intended.
-4-
7. Notice the sum of probabilities in the third column equals one, which is always a nice thing when
working with probabilities. We can also think of this is as the sum of Alice herself, combining all 16 of
her fractional doppelgangers into one whole Alice. Most importantly, the probabilities shown in the
third column exactly match the binomial probability distribution with the U success rate equal to 75%.
Alice is most likely to find herself in one of the four branches matching the 3U & 1D outcome, in the
row highlighted in yellow, which corresponds to measuring U three out of four times, or a success
probability of 75%. So it seems like the strategy of bifurcating Alice into fractional slices works
mathematically, so this might be the way MWI would work according to MAI.
Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance
Initially, Everett’s interpretation was not well received. The physics community reacted in horror that a
universe could physically split into infinite parallel versions of itself, and there were many angry
arguments and papers published over it. Over time physicists came to accept Everett’s interpretation
just because it seemed the only way to avoid the dreaded wave function collapse. Max Tegmark’s
paper, cited in Footnote 3, mentions an informal (albeit unscientific) survey among 48 scientists who
attended at a quantum mechanics workshop held at UMBC in 1997 where they were asked which
interpretation of quantum mechanics they preferred. The results were: Copenhagen 13, MWI 8, Bohm
4, Consistent Histories 4, Modified Dynamics 1, and none of the above or undecided 18. Copenhagen
was the winner, but MWI was a close second. The participants had their own reasons for voting the
ways they did, and although I don’t know what their reasons were, I’ll offer some guesses.
The Motivation for Many Worlds
The main motivations for MWI are 1) it gets rid of the “ugly” wave function collapse in the
Copenhagen interpretation, and 2) it banishes randomness from the universe because as we have seen,
all possible quantum measurements are 100% actualized in the model. Consequently, probability is all
in the mind and the universe itself is completely deterministic, which appeals to some folks who just
don’t like uncertainty. Einstein was one of them because he never accepted the possibility that God
plays dice with the universe, and he probably would have strongly supported Everett’s thesis if he had
lived long enough to see it (Einstein died in 1955). Let’s examine both of these motivations.
Some mathematicians and physicists believe the wave function is ontological. As revealed by the title
of Max Tegmark’s Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality, he
believes mathematics is the ultimate reality and that every consistent mathematical system must
physically exist as a “universe” in a Level IV multiverse of all possibilities. If the wave function is
mathematically consistent, it must therefore physically exist as an entire universe. Anyone who
believes this is true would consider the collapse of the wave function “ugly.” But is this true?
In my view, the wave function is no more ontological than binomial, Poisson or Gaussian probability
functions. Its value is entirely due to the fact that it works as a predictive model, but it doesn’t “direct”
anything. Its usefulness as a predictive model disappears as soon as its predictions are realized. The
same thing happens to the wave function when a measurement is made. Knowledge removes some
uncertainty and changes all future probabilities. The wave function doesn’t entirely “collapse” but it
must change in order to conform to those probabilities.
This brings up the second point. Those who don’t fully understand probability obviously would want to
banish it from reality, and MWI supposedly does that. In the “pop sci” version of MWI, both branches
in the bifurcation are fully realized, so probability appears to vanish. But this assumes all
measurements are coin-toss measurements producing equal numbers of heads as tails. In other words,
there is an underlying 50% probability assumed in the model but this is never explicitly stated. As we
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8. see when the U and D probabilities are different, the simple bifurcation model doesn’t work unless the
supposedly non-existent probabilities are incorporated into the branching mechanisms. This only
appears to eliminate uncertainty because the deterministic wave function supposedly controls the
branching mechanism, but this is just a sleight of hand that hides uncertainty within the wave function.
The Role of Consciousness
Prior to the quantum revolution that began in the 1920s, physicists viewed the universe as what James
Jeans called a Great Machine. As quantum mechanics developed, it became an accepted fact that
consciousness is not only capable of modifying the Machine through the exercise of free will, but it also
plays an indispensable role in creating it. There is a debate that continues to the present say as to how
much a role it plays. As Einstein quipped, “Does the Moon disappear when I look away from it and
reappear when I look back?” Many physicists today would answer “Yes” to that question. In their
view, consciousness is absolutely essential for turning a possibility into an actuality through
observation; i.e., consciousness collapses the wave function. Carried to an extreme, this leads to the
Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment where everything and everybody are superposed in a giant wave
function that is constantly growing and then collapsing when it interacts with consciousness.5
According to MWI, Alice doesn’t play any role whatsoever because every quantum possibility exists as
an actuality in some parallel world. Her observations have absolutely no effect on the wave function,
which evolves forever according to its own rules without a beginning or end. The many worlds are
radically deterministic but completely out of control, like Jeans’ Great Machine running amok.
I find it odd that Wheeler would approve of MWI because he’s at the forefront of the participatory
universe hypothesis, but presumably he did approve of it because he was Everett’s thesis advisor. On
the other hand, Wheeler might have preferred the MAI modification even more, which places Alice at
the center of creation (at least inside her own mind). Everything that can happen does happen in some
parallel world, but the only world that exists for her is the one she’s currently witnessing; and in some
strange way this might be true. There’s a famous Daoist koan:
“Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting gaily about. He knew
nothing about Zhuangzi. Then suddenly he awoke and he was at once solidly and
unmistakably himself, Zhuangzi. But he didn’t know whether he was a man who
dreamt he was a butterfly or was a butterfly dreaming he was a man.”
Zhuangzi didn’t remember awakening as a butterfly who dreamt of being a man, but he wonders if he
could be dreaming that dream in the present. Alice has much more of a disadvantage than Zhuangzi
because she can’t even remember dreaming about any of her other selves.
Thoughts Regarding Bell’s Theorem
According to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, the outcome of measuring a particle
in a superposed state is completely random. Some physicists, notably Einstein, believed the universe is
both deterministic and local, and they could not bring themselves to believe that true stochasticity is
possible in a deterministic universe. Others, notably Bohr, argued that quantum randomness is real, and
he and Einstein engaged in a series of arguments over this question. In 1935, Einstein and two other
colleagues of his published a paper they were convinced would prove Bohr was wrong.6
According to
the Copenhagen interpretation, two systems in a state of quantum entanglement and separated by a large
5 Schrödinger himself didn’t believe any of it. He invented this to show the absurdity of such an idea, but it backfired.
Many physicists have extended the absurdity by claiming that it isn’t just the cat in an alive/dead quantum superposition,
but the human observer, Wigner, is also in a superposed quantum state until he looks inside the box and observes the cat,
and so is Wigner’s friend until Wigner informs his friend how the observation turned out, and on and on and on …
6 Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen were co-authors; hence, the paper came to be known as the EPR paradox.
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9. distance seemed to behave as a single entity, where a measurement of one property of one system will
instantaneously influence a measurement of a complementary property of the other. Einstein et al
argued that instantaneous communication between systems is impossible; therefore, the systems must
contain “hidden variables” that preordain what those properties are before they are measured.
In 1964, John S. Bell published a paper entitled, “On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox,” with a
theorem that he proved would show whether Einstein was correct based on an experiment. In 1980, the
first of a series of Bell-like experiments were performed that confirmed that at least one of the
following two statements must be false: a) communication cannot travel faster than light, or b) there
exist hidden variables that determine the outcomes of quantum measurements. In other words, physics
had to abandon either locality or realism. A majority of physicists decided to keep locality and abandon
realism. Bell had been in the realist camp along with Einstein. As the results of the Bell-like
experiments came in, he said that there would be one possible loophole that would save realism, namely
if there were no statistical independence among Alice, her spin detector and the electrons she measures.
This strict dependency is called superdeterminism (SD), which Bell believed might be possible because
Bell-like experiments could not falsify it. One consequence of SD is that intentional agency goes out
the window, and so Bell said he felt it was “unlikely” we live in an SD world.7
Concluding Remarks
What does MWI or MAI accomplish that the other interpretations do not? Not much in my opinion. It
gets rid of the wave function collapse, which lacks a physical mechanism that explains it and is deemed
“ugly.” Instead, MWI splits the universe into myriad parts, which also lacks a physical mechanism and
is just as “ugly.” Proponents of Everett’s interpretation claim a loophole exists, similar to the SD
loophole, allowing MWI to escape falsification by Bell’s theorem; however, they say the MWI loophole
is different than the SD loophole, and they are adamant that MWI is not remotely the same as SD. To
me, this looks like a distinction without a difference because one of the motivations behind MWI was to
impose a strict form of determinism on the universe to get rid of randomness. But as we saw earlier
MWI doesn’t even accomplish this goal because although a deterministically-evolving wave function
causes the branching, |ψ|2
determines the underlying probabilities of the branching process.
The truth of the matter is a wave function is not a physical thing, but rather an abstract mathematical
object. Physical things are represented by real numbers, whereas ψ is represented by complex numbers.
Probabilities, being real numbers between 0 and 1, are the only “real” things that |ψ(x,t)|2
represents.
But the main fallacy behind MWI is thinking that probabilities “control” outcomes; but probabilities
don’t control anything. Instead, they only predict likelihoods of future events based on their frequencies
observed in the past. The fact that the Schrödinger equation does a masterful job in predicting the
probabilities of future measurements doesn’t mean it controls those measurements any more than a
binomial function controls coin tosses.
This is how I think about quantum measurements: A polarized light beam passes through a polarizing
filter oriented 45 to the direction of the polarized light, and Maxwell’s equations say the filter changes
the amplitudes of the E and B waves by 1/√2, thus cutting the power of the beam in half. Nature
operates on a “need to know basis,” so as long as 50% of the photons make it through in agreement with
Maxwell’s equations, we don’t need to know in advance which specific photons will make it and which
ones won’t. Therefore, Nature censors those details and won’t reveal them to us until the photons are
measured. This is also known as the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.
7 Whether SD is likely or unlikely has nothing to do with how we feel about it. Establishing SD’s likelihood is impossible
because the sample size of observable universes is 1. Furthermore, there’s no way to falsify SD experimentally. So we
either live in an SD universe or we don’t, and statistically speaking the likelihood is either 100% or 0%.
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10. Appendix A – How Classical Objects Emerge from the Law of Averages
There seems to be a conceptual stumbling block in the scientific community of understanding how the
world of tables and chairs emerges from the realm of quantum particles. After all, tables and chairs are
made of quantum particles, so shouldn’t tables and chairs be quantum objects also? This leads to the
notion that quantum wave functions rule both elementary particles and the world of tables and chairs.
This in turn led to the many worlds interpretation. However, the answer to the classical vs quantum
conundrum is quite simple: It’s just because of the law of averages and the Central Limit Theorem.
Suppose a single quantum particle is confined within a thin tube. Let the square of the magnitude of the
Schrödinger wave function |ψ(x)|2
be a bi-modal probability distribution function (pdf) with two peak
probabilities at x=-1 and x=1, depicted as the variably-shaded area below. The darker blue colors
depict larger probabilities, highlighting the particle’s wave property. Superposition is also evident by
the peak probabilities near x=-1 and x=1. The equation for |ψ(x)|2
and its mean, μ, and standard
deviation, σ, are shown above the figure.
Now suppose there is a large population of non-interacting elementary particles inside the tube, all
having this same wave function. Instead of looking at the position, x, of a single particle, let’s look at
the average positions of samples of n particles, Xn. Here the Central Limit Theorem kicks in, where the
probability distribution of the averages of the sample groups, f (Xn), converges into a normal
distribution having a mean equal to the population’s mean and a standard deviation equal to the
population’s standard deviation divided by √n. In the plot below, |ψ(x)|2
for a single particle is shown in
blue and the distribution f (Xn) of the averages many samples of n=30 is shown in red.8
By “zooming out” from a single particle and looking at the averages of many sample groups of n=30,
the two superposition peaks of |ψ(x)|2
disappear with hardly a trace of particles for x<-1 or x>1. The
Xn values bunch up in the middle, so quantum uncertainty diminishes and “classical” behavior begins to
emerge. As n increases, the red curve’s peak will grow taller and narrower around x=0, making
quantum behavior vanish entirely. In other words, classical behavior emerges naturally by increasing
the number of particles we measure (or see) at the same time. This is just due to the law of averages.
8 It must be stressed that the distribution of the sample averages is not the same as the average of the sample distributions.
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-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
|ψ(x)|2
f (Xn)
11. We can see how quickly quantum superposition can evolve into classical behavior using the following
simple example with discrete probabilities. Let a particle have two quantum states, x1 = -1 and x2 = +1,
and the wave function ψ(x) of the particle be a superposition of x1 and x2 both having a 50% probability.
The statistics for those probabilities are μ=0 and σ=1. Suppose there are two particles both having the
same statistics. Taking the averages of the two particles, there are four combinations:
Particle(A), x = -1 ; Particle(B), x =-1 ; X2 =-1
Particle(A), x = -1 ; Particle(B), x=+1 ; X2 = 0
Particle(A), x = +1 ; Particle(B), x=-1 ; X2 = 0
Particle(A), x = +1 ; Particle(B), x=+1 ; X2 =+1
Xn =2k/n – 1, for k=0, 1 … n, and f (Xn)=a binomial distribution p(k/n)=
(n
k)0.5n
n=2, k=0, X2 =-1: f (X2)=p(0/2)=0.25
n=2, k=1, X2 =0: f (X2)=p(1/2)=0.50
n=2, k=2, X2 =+1: f (X2)=p(2/2)=0.25
According to the Central Limit Theorem, the distribution function f (Xn) should converge into a normal
distribution N (Xn) whose standard deviation equals the population’s standard deviation divided by √n.
For the case n=2, the statistics of N (X2) are μ=0, σ=0.707. The plots below show f (X2) values by
blue 𝐱 symbols and N (X2) discrete probability values by red symbols.9
The fit between f (Xn) and N (Xn) isn’t bad for n=2, but it becomes much better with n=8:
We can see that even when there are very few particles, averaging quickly rubs out the quantum
superposition x=1, and the discrete probabilities approximate a normal distribution curve.
9 It should be noted that N (Xn) is a continuous probability density function, so it must be converted into a probability
distribution by multiplying all of the discrete N (Xn) values by some constant so that Σ N (Xn)= 1.
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12. Appendix B – What Is a Measurement and Why Does It Happen?
In his book Something Deeply Hidden, Sean Carroll says there is no consensus among scientists and
philosophers about what really happens when a quantum measurement is made; so let me humbly offer
a suggestion from a retired engineer and amateur scientist.
My suggestion is that a quantum measurement involving a collapse of the wave function occurs when a
quantum wave function energetically interacts with a measuring device. There are two requirement for
a wave function collapse: 1) the wave function must exhibit sufficient energy uncertainty between the
superposed energy states when interacting with the measuring device, 2) the measuring device must
have sufficient capacity to absorb the entropy, S, from the collapsed wave function. A single quantum
particle cannot measure another quantum particle because it doesn’t meet those requirements. Thus,
when two electrons collide, they do interact quantum mechanically but not in a way that can collapse a
wave function into a single eigenvalue. Detecting or measuring a quantum particle by collapsing its
wave function typically requires a large laboratory device, and sometimes the device is gigantic, with an
example being CERN’s ATLAS detector you can view here: https://atlas.cern/Discover/Detector
In order for ATLAS to detect any elementary particle, it must interact energetically with it, either
through electromagnetism for electrically-charged particles or by absorbing the kinetic energy from
collisions with electrically-neutral particles. To measure an electron’s spin, a small laboratory magnetic
device will suffice. The negatively-charged electron has a magnetic moment, μ, pointing in the opposite
direction of the electron’s inherent spin, ŝ. An electron in a superposed spin state can be considered as
two partial electrons with opposite spins, shown as two ghostly images on the left below.
When the electron interacts with an external magnetic field, B, there is an energy gap, Δe=2μB,
between the energy of interaction of B with -μ (the |U state) and +μ (the |D state). The magnetic field
of the lab equipment determines the directions |U and |D. In the absence of a magnetic field, the
electron itself would have no idea what directions “up” or “down” might be.
The decoherence is due to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle with respect to energy and time, given by
the formula Δt½ħ/Δe, where Δt is commonly interpreted as the minimum time it takes to measure the
energy of a system, e, within a Δe error tolerance or uncertainty. An alternative interpretation is that Δt
is the approximate duration uncertainty can persist while Δe exists between |U and |D. Decoherence
occurs after a delay of Δt, superposition is irreversibly lost, and a definite U or D measurement
emerges. Planck’s constant, ħ, has a very small value, so magnetic decoherence typically occurs after
about one billionth of a second.
The entropy of superposition is Sψ =-kB (αLogα+βLogβ) per the Gibbs equation. When ψŝ collapses,
Sψ 0 and then the second law of thermodynamics requires the missing entropy to be transferred to the
environment through the measuring device. Thus, the measuring device must have a sufficient
thermodynamic capacity to absorb the wave function’s missing entropy (see Condition 2 above).
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