Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds • Hacker News Board

Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds

#11

Post by hellbanner » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:16 AM UTC

anti-shill wrote: post #9

z5h wrote: post #3

What does it mean to exist? A thing exists specifically when it affects something else. What is measurement? It's a reciprocal affecting. So does a thing which is not affecting anything else and not being measured exist? No! QED

depends on what the meaning of "is" is....

E Prime is English without the definition of the word is, precisely for the sake of exploring language..

Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds

#12

Post by kiernan » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:17 AM UTC

andyl wrote: post #10

Lazy instantiation.

realization

Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds

#13

Post by hellbanner » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:17 AM UTC

How can you measure what doesn't exist?

Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds

#14

Post by bcheung » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:22 AM UTC

So that's why kids cover their eyes when they want to hide.

Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds

#15

Post by davidrusu » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:22 AM UTC

Clever optimization by our simulators, Big up

Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds

#16

Post by Moshe_Silnorin » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:25 AM UTC

Or, maybe, Everett was right.

Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds

#17

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:28 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds

#18

Post by deciplex » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:29 AM UTC

John Wheeler's delayed choice thought experiment was already confirmed in the lab over ten years ago. It's neat that they were able to get results with baryonic matter, and it was definitely worthwhile to try to do that, but this article seems to be implying that the results could have been anything else than what they were, or that there is new physics here, and is wrong on both counts.

Also the deference to the Copenhagen interpretation is annoying - it's wrong. What they've observed is a consequence of how decoherence works, and 'observation' has nothing to do with it. Not faulting the researchers on this but seriously, it's time to stop talking about mythical 'observation' as though it's some integral part of quantum theory.

Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds

#19

Post by hypertexthero » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:30 AM UTC

bcheung wrote: post #14

So that's why kids cover their eyes when they want to hide.

Or put on completely opaque sunglasses.

Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds

#20

Post by sown » Tue, Jun 30, 2015, 1:33 AM UTC

What does this mean? If there was a supernova eons ago in another galaxy and I'm the only human who had been hit by a cosmic ray, does that mean it didn't exist or happen until ... ?

Does measurement have to include an agent? Could measurement mean interaction with other atoms?