• mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    6 months ago

    I came here to say this.

    Modern physics already gives special status to observer objects and properties that “non-observer” objects don’t have, and every universe needs to be defined from some particular point of view instead of “objectively” from outside. There are a couple other weird things but those are two big ones to me.

    And so a physicist from the 2100s where physics is defined in relation to consciousness asks a modern physicist, so why did you think it was all just atoms and numbers in an “objective” universe?

    And the modern physicist says what the fuck are you talking about don’t get all weird and religious on me

    And the future physicist says okay dude good luck then

    • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      You’re fundamentally misunderstanding the concept of an “observer” - it’s not a conscious entity literally observing something. It’s simply an object whose state depends on the quantum particle in question.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        Why does the detector in the double slit experiment cause an interference pattern if its state depends on which slit the particle went through, but then it resets its internal state after, without transmitting the result?

        • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          6 months ago

          There’s no way to fully erase the state, as information cannot be destroyed. There will always be consequences of the state measurement in the detector (e.g. through heat).

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            6 months ago

            Absolutely false. You have apparently never heard of the exact aspects of quantum mechanics which so surprised physicists when they were first discovered? (which are pretty much its defining feature) IDK, it kind of sounds that way.

            I’m honestly not saying it’s as simple as the pop science oversimplification of QM, even though my comment was kind of invoking exactly that oversimplification. But yes, things like having the detector erase its measurements without recording them were exactly the types of experiments which started to point to something much stranger going on than just one object’s state depending on another.

            Citation

            Wheeler’s delayed-choice experiments demonstrate that extracting “which path” information after a particle passes through the slits can seem to retroactively alter its previous behavior at the slits.

            Quantum eraser experiments demonstrate that wave behavior can be restored by erasing or otherwise making permanently unavailable the “which path” information.

            Emphasis is mine. If I’ve misunderstood something then fill me in, sure.

        • Shyfer@ttrpg.network
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 months ago

          There’s apparently a answer to this I’ve been told by physicists, but I’ve never quite understood it lol.