Re:Physicists found a new quantum paradox that casts doubt o...
by jlokier on Sunday August 30, 2020 @11:07PM
(#24328167)
> how hand-wavy the whole superposition/quantum collapse stuff really is
Superposition isn't particularly hand-wavy. It's the basis of various technologies, and of precise numerical models we use to build technologies.
Quantum collapse is hand-wavy, and that's because it is not well understood. It might not exist (in which case superposition of mind-states is a thing), or it might exist (in which case mind-states may be definite). Quantum mechanics that we can calculate doesn't give an answer either way, even though it gives lots of other answers very precisely and correctly.
> Wiger doesn't know about it, [...] just seems like silly mind games.
When only applied to a single measurement it does seem like silly mind games, you're not wrong.
The motivation for those thought experiments was to try to reason back from the consequences found from more complex behaviour observed with multiple measurements, back to a simple system with only one measurement.
But when you have many measurements with entanglement, of which there are numerous physical experiements and confirmations by now, the idea that there are just multiple, correlated probabilistic states ready to be observed that we're not yet aware of is not consistent with physically measured behaviours. Those measurements aren't hand-waving, they are hard data, even though my explanation here is hand-waving and doesn't go into it.
> I side with Einstein with his view that everything is already in one state or the other
Numerous experimental results now contradict this view, or require other strange things to be true about the world (for example superdeterminism was mentioned in the article).
Superposition isn't particularly hand-wavy. It's the basis of various technologies, and of precise numerical models we use to build technologies.
Quantum collapse is hand-wavy, and that's because it is not well understood. It might not exist (in which case superposition of mind-states is a thing), or it might exist (in which case mind-states may be definite). Quantum mechanics that we can calculate doesn't give an answer either way, even though it gives lots of other answers very precisely and correctly.
> Wiger doesn't know about it, [...] just seems like silly mind games.
When only applied to a single measurement it does seem like silly mind games, you're not wrong.
The motivation for those thought experiments was to try to reason back from the consequences found from more complex behaviour observed with multiple measurements, back to a simple system with only one measurement.
But when you have many measurements with entanglement, of which there are numerous physical experiements and confirmations by now, the idea that there are just multiple, correlated probabilistic states ready to be observed that we're not yet aware of is not consistent with physically measured behaviours. Those measurements aren't hand-waving, they are hard data, even though my explanation here is hand-waving and doesn't go into it.
> I side with Einstein with his view that everything is already in one state or the other
Numerous experimental results now contradict this view, or require other strange things to be true about the world (for example superdeterminism was mentioned in the article).