So that's why kids cover their eyes when they want to hide.
HN doesn't appreciate when you concretize their epistemology.
Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds
81–90 of 249 posts
Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds
#82Clever optimization by our simulators, Big up
I've always wanted to read (or write?) a book about us determining we are in a simulation, but we find subtle flaws like this we're able to exploit in weird ways. Kind of like breaking out of a VM through register flaws or something. Anyone know of a story along those lines?
I've definitely read one where we're an experiment and the speed of light limit is to stop us from escaping all over the lab equipment. I can't remember what it was called now.
I feel as if fiction where we're in a simulation is relatively common, but one where the hacking of reality is actually done well and plausibly rather than handwaved would be pretty new.
The author of Ra also did a short piece you'll probably enjoy: http://qntm.org/responsibility
Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds
#83This is of course extremely interesting and probably important for understanding our universe—but how is it helping anyone to say something like, "...with scientists performing a famous experiment and proving that reality does not exist until it is measured." The statement is like a distraction at a magic show, drawing the reader to the glittery 'reality' and 'exist,' which are totally undefined so the reader's imagi…
The thing is, this isn't even a challenge to any assumptions physicists have, or even a surprising result. Every prediction of quantum theory for these kinds of atomic systems has been borne out.
All this "weirdness" is the same old story of "Is it a particle or a wave?!," when in reality, we know its neither. Quantum objects are represented by wavefunctions, or vectors in a Hilbert space, to which "particle" and "wave" are intuitive approximations in certain regimes, that makes it easier for humans to talk about in natural, non-mathematical language.
All this experiment has shown is that a object that we expect to be described by quantum mechanics turns out to, indeed, be described by quantum mechanics.
Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds
#84I'm not familiar with this particular experiment, but all my pondering on the subject - as a layman - leads me to a simple conclusion.
The properties these experiments are measuring are simply bogus. They are not well defined. The answer that comes out is not some intrinsic property of the "particle", but the result of the environment in which the particle interacted with the "measurement" system, so to speak.
The particle has some other properties, but what's being "measured" is not one of those properties.
How can I explain?
Imagine someone who has never tried any Korean food, and you try to ask him/her: what's your favorite Korean food? There's no answer. So you try to "measure" it by feeding him some Korean items and recording his facial expressions. He will like some items more than others, but it has nothing to do with "his favorite Korean food", and has more to do with how the items were prepared and his mood at the time.
A "point" location for a photon is never defined; it's not a property of a photon that it exists in a point in space. When you fire a photon at a "wall" and see a "blip", you're not seeing the position of the photon at some point in time. You're seeing the rough position of the atom that had an electron that absorbed the photon's energy, and I'm not even sure the atom has a well defined point position either. The whole thing is an artifact (a side effect) of some interaction between several systems and doesn't really tell you anything fundamental about the photon (or the quantum object).
At least that's how I understand it.
Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always wanted to read (or write?) a book about us determining we are in a simulation, but we find subtle flaws like this we're able to exploit in weird ways. Kind of like breaking out of a VM through register flaws or something. Anyone know of a story along those lines?
Isn't that the entire premise of The Matrix?
No.
Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds
#86And perhaps someday we'll get to meet the great programmer in the sky the developed the simulation we are living in and we will ask him why he designed it that way and he will say something like "oh I just wanted to optimize the code so I simply excluded reality subroutines when there were no beings looking. I just never thought you guys would notice. As soon as I saw that you guys noticed the flaw, I was going to load a patch but then the confusion it was causing with the simulated beings became interesting and so I just left it in as an accidental feature of the game."
Meh, but probably not.
Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe the universe doesn't do it for the same reason games and movies don't do it, the people watching expect smooth playback.
But if you're enmeshed in the simulation, you would never notice the slowdown! The only reason the video game is annoying is because we experience time outside of it.
I think the OP is referring to people watching from outside the simulation.
Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds
#88Deepak Chopra is going to have a field day with this one.
Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds
#89Clever optimization by our simulators, Big up
I've always wanted to read (or write?) a book about us determining we are in a simulation, but we find subtle flaws like this we're able to exploit in weird ways. Kind of like breaking out of a VM through register flaws or something. Anyone know of a story along those lines?
Tron Legacy. The programs want to break out of the VM.
Good film.
Re: Reality doesn’t exist until it is measured, quantum experiment finds
#90For us, Reality by definition, is what we perceive. Our mind/brain/consciousness interprets the perceptions, draws conclusions makes up reality by interfacing an Electromagnetic medium. When trying to explain Popular Quantum Physics, one should avoid using the word Reality loosely.