61–70 of 93 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The wave functions of all everythings can be (and often are) seen as one giant wave function.
sounds like something you'd hear someone say while passing the blunt.. not that it makes it less true, just, you know, it's so bizarre.. and extra bizarre that the guy with the blunt is kind of right
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you can explain the difference, maybe you can help me make sense of postmodern philosophy.
This has nothing to do with postmodern philosophy. There is a difference between the reality, and a human's conceptualization of that reality. In fact, we can abstract further and say that there is a difference between X and the concept of X. Now, the GP comment is saying that the model of X (which is how a human being conceptualizes X) is different than X. So, when you look at nature as it is, there are no electrons…
How in the hell could you figure that out, when there are a lot of things in physics and astronomy that we do not yet know how works, nor how they are composed.
It is the ultimate "estimate how long it will take to implement this computer system based on this napkin drawing I made in 3 minutes ago".
With this in mind, this idea is particularly fun if paired with something like Neil Turok's CPT symmetric universe (i.e. the other side of the knot).
Obviously, Wheeler was much more knowledgeable about physics than the likes of me, so my obvious objection must have occurred to him, but here it is. Electrons have mass, so the total mass of a multiple electrons must be more than the mass of a single electron. Or is there some other mind-bender that would explain why "the" single electron appears to have a trillion times it real mass when that electron's timeline ha…
When Wheeler came up with his idea, antimatter had just been discovered and positrons were the only known form of it at the time. So he was trying to explain why electrons/positrons are so alike, and yet not alike. In other words, just a historical accident that he applied his idea solely to electrons.
But yes, as new antimatter particles were subsequently discovered, his idea could be applied to those as well. In fact, if you're a believer in string theory, one could imagine that there's one fundamental string particle that's moving back and forth through time, creating all the other particles as it does so.
The conventional answer is that all electrons are the same because they are all local excited states of a single quantized field (the electron field). So we just have to shift perspective from "there's only one electron" to "there's only one electron field".
But this explanation has nothing to do with fields. It is the idea that all the electrons are literally the same particle.
Obviously, Wheeler was much more knowledgeable about physics than the likes of me, so my obvious objection must have occurred to him, but here it is. Electrons have mass, so the total mass of a multiple electrons must be more than the mass of a single electron. Or is there some other mind-bender that would explain why "the" single electron appears to have a trillion times it real mass when that electron's timeline ha…
Time travel is required for this thought experiment. The single electron moves forwards and backwards in time so that at any slice of time it can appear at multiple locations simultaneously. Just like a time traveller can go back in time and there would be two of them, this electron travels back and forth in time so that there are numerous instances of it.
https://youtu.be/pq-L3VCSnwU?si=tJYaISHHqOJ2O-bz This is a fun discussion which touches on how deep the matter rabbit hole goes.
It led to a video on refraction which seemed to tie it all together and drive home how useful field equations/models are in a practical sense.
Obviously, Wheeler was much more knowledgeable about physics than the likes of me, so my obvious objection must have occurred to him, but here it is. Electrons have mass, so the total mass of a multiple electrons must be more than the mass of a single electron. Or is there some other mind-bender that would explain why "the" single electron appears to have a trillion times it real mass when that electron's timeline ha…
>>why wouldn't this logic also apply to every other primitive particle: there is only one muon, one tau, one up quark, one down quark, etc? When Wheeler came up with his idea, antimatter had just been discovered and positrons were the only known form of it at the time. So he was trying to explain why electrons/positrons are so alike, and yet not alike. In other words, just a historical accident that he applied his id…
Or take that further, and you get The Egg, by Andy Weir: https://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html