While we lesser creatures spend our lives creating blogposts and commenting on the blogposts of others, greater minds than ours ponder things like the following article from the current issue of Scientific American magazine:
"This Twist on Schrödinger’s Cat Paradox Has Major Implications for Quantum Theory"
which has the even more intriguing subtitle, 'A laboratory demonstration of the classic “Wigner’s friend” thought experiment could overturn cherished assumptions about reality'.
I am clearly out of my element and in over my head. I have never heard of Schrödinger’s Cat Paradox and don't care about Quantum Theory, I don't know what “Wigner’s friend” thought experiment proved or didn't prove, or why it is considered classic, and I have no cherished assumptions about reality that I am aware of.
I'm sure it is very important, but it seems like so much flotsam and jetsam to me.
So why even bring up the subject, you may be asking.
Simple. I want you to read the article from start ro finish and tell me what you think.
Only then can we begin to tackle world peace.
I tried to read it but my mind kept drifting away. Consequently, I am unable to tell you what I think of the article - except to say that it wasn't my cup of tea at all. Sorry to be of so little help and if necessary I will be happy to wear a dunce's conical cap for the rest of the day.
ReplyDeleteNeil, you may wear the dunce's cap when I am finished with it.
DeleteUgh I tried reading the article, but it made my brain hurt.
ReplyDeleteI prefer Star Trek: Data explained that "for any event, there is an infinite number of possible outcomes. Our choices determine which outcomes will follow." Data then referred to "theory in quantum physics that all possibilities that can happen, do happen in alternate quantum realities." (TNG: "Parallels")
I just want a transporter.:)
Kathy, it made my head hurt too. Data's statement is also borne out by the Men In Black films. In the mouths of two or three witnesses, it will be established.
DeleteI really don't know if quantum theory qualifies as science. I do know that, in science, testability is crucial, and that something which is called a theory is, in ordinary parlance, a sure thing. Quantum theory rests on unproven assumptions, is loaded with flat-out self-contradictions (aka paradoxes), and isn't testable, so it's hardly a theory in the scientific sense. The main way I know of it is that every fringe-dwelling New Age nutcase uses it to "prove" (aka promote) whatever fantastic ideas he or she might want to get credit for. While truth sometimes defies common sense, quantum theory does it on steroids.
ReplyDeleteSnowbrush, my estimation of you has risen mightily, probably because the very thought of discussing anything to do with physics besides the three types of levers makes my eyes glaze over. You have made some excellent points, I think, but then, what do I know?
DeleteActually a theory in science is a well thought out idea. It still needs to be proven using the scientific method. The scientific method requires testing to show whether or not the theory will become fact. If it is not a fact it remains a theory.
DeleteFor me reading is comparable to movies. I want to be entertained. If I also learn something I get a bonus. An article that has a title longer than the article is usually full of more confusion than anything else.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of it in that way, but I think I agree with you.
DeleteOkay, I read the article from start to finish but I still feel the same way about quantum physics. It's hard for me to get excited about something I can't see. I first heard about the Schrödinger’s Cat Paradox many years ago and although I know it is just a "concept" I still don't like the thought of that poor cat in a box and maybe even killed!
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time applying this to world peace except maybe the fact that we can't seem to see either one!
Bonnie, they have nothing at all to do with each other as far as I know. I just threw world peace in to make my post more interesting. I'm funny that way. Funny peculiar I mean, not funny ha-ha. It's part of my charm.
DeleteI arrived back home after an absence from Blogland and paid a fleeting visit last night to see who was around. A friend in New Zealand with an (inexplicable to me) interest in Quantum Physics and I used to discuss Schrödinger’s Cat into the wee small hours. New Zealand's red wine is very good for increasing one's understanding of it. However your post led to me being rather disturbed last night. I went to my bookcase where I have a few books of on some subjects of interest and Schrödinger’s Cat was missing. I had not intended to spend time last night looking for a book that I will probably never open again but the fact that it is missing has thrown my whole understanding of the Theory of Order into disarray.
ReplyDeleteGraham, if anyone ever brings up Schrödinger’s Cat to me, I will try to have New Zealand's red wine at the ready.
DeleteI'm sorry my post led to your being rather disturbed last night, but I have achieved my lifelong ambition of being a catalyst.
My aforementioned Jewish friend also taught me about Schrodinger's cat but she failed to mention Wigners friend. I'm not surprised! It's like a tongue twister but more painful
ReplyDeletekylie, I heard that Wigner’s friend is a very nice lady and that she sells seashells by the seashore.
DeleteIs there a layman's version? I had enough trouble with Pavlov's dog.
ReplyDeletePeter Clothier, I would try to find out if there is a layman’s version but I hear a bell ringing and I have to go.
DeleteHmmm. I just came over to say hi and now my head has exploded. My son likes to think on these types of things - Me? I'd rather clean the bathroom...or milk a goat...or dig a hole...or, well, I think you get my drift. I'm more of a ballad-listening artistic-type farm gal. If the sun rises in the morning, I'm good. I don't feel the need to know why, lol!
ReplyDeletehilltophomesteader (Pam), I’m the artistic type too, and I feel a poem coming on:
DeleteHow To Avoid Thinking About Schrödinger’s Cat
by Robert H. Brague
Clean the bathroom,
Milk a goat,
Dig a hole,
Whatever floats your boat.
So, let me get this right. You want us to read the article to see whether our interpretations are the same as yours. But what if we draw different conclusions?
ReplyDeleteNo, Tasker, you misunderstand. I drew no conclusions at all (except for the flotsam and jetsam comparison) because the subject was too deep for my feeble brain. I asked all of you to read it to find out what your concluded so that you could enlighten me. I play the piano. I don’t solve physics problems.
DeleteAnd there was I thinking that I'd made a really clever comment showing that I did.
DeleteLet me get this straight. Tasker mistakenly thought that you gave him one task, whereupon you retasked him by clarifying the task that you had initially asked him to perform, this while informing everyone that, although your intellect is feeble, that feebleness is offset by to some degree by your ability play the piano to an extent unknown to your readers. What are we to take from this, and, your intellect being feeble, from whence cometh your confidence that you will be able to understand any possible rewording of the problem? Obviously--given your response to Tasker--you realize that Ludwig Wittgenstein, the philosopher/clarinetist, used musical imagery to undertake what he said was the one philosophical task, which was to so word philosophical questions that it would become obvious that they were nonsensical. If I, lover of cats in general and five cats in particular, can't make sense of the task you have assigned, and none of my many cats can enlighten me, it's not looking good for others to enlighten either you or me.
ReplyDeleteSnowbrush, perhaps feeble is an overstatement, an exaggeration. I do not really think my brain is feeble, its interests just lie in a different direction from the scientific. As I told the tester in the Air Force when I was told that the aptitude tests showed I should be a computer programmer, "I can do math and science, I just don't like math and science." (I spent the rest of my military hitch programming computers because, as the Air Force tester explained to me, "It's not about match and science, it's about logic and an attention to detail." Anyway, I never quite know how to respond to you because you cover so much ground in your comments, both here and at your own blog. I do appreciate the reference to Wittgenstein or, to be more accurate, Wittgenstein's ladder.
DeleteWhy is New Blogger denying Mr Brague access to the icons that appear for other bloggers on the New Post page? This is a question that has been causing me sleepless nights of tossing and turning, fretting about by longtime, genial and cuddly chum in Canton GA. Perhaps this is simply it - you see a row of icons at the top a blank "New Post" page. Those icons end with three dots. Click on the three dots and more icons are revealed, including the "Insert Image" icon with a drop down arrow next to it. Click on that drop down arrow and you find options such as "Upload from Computer" displayed. I hope that this solves the problem. Kind regards, Neil G. Theasby (aka Yorkshire Pudding)
ReplyDeleteNeil G. Theasby (aka Yorkshire Pudding), Esq.:
DeleteYou obviously haven't read my responses to Adrian and Tasker on the subject of the dreaded New Blogger. My page, as you call it, doesn't have the three dots either. I could take a picture and show you but I trust that you know I am speaking the truth. Let me pull out the relevant information and highlight it to make my point. My page doesn't have the three dots either. Thank you for your comment, though. It is quite clear, rather as if you were speaking to a 10-year-old.
I could tell you how to insert images by editing the HTML version.
DeleteStarted reading the article, but my brain imploded. Now I have no brain. No idea how I'm typing this. Then again, maybe I'm not typing this. Maybe it's my cat. Look, a bird!
ReplyDeleteMarcheline, I don’t usually say “I know just how you feel,” but I know just how you feel. I reached the point while reading the article where the words were passing my eyes but they had stopped entering my brain. Imploded is a good way of putting it. I think I have now recovered and I am confident that you will too.
Delete