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Re:I Don't Understand Quantum Physics (2018) by dbvdh on Monday October 26, 2026 @04:25AM (#50240757)
In the Copenhagen interpretation, when I look at schrodingers cat, the wavefunction will collapse. After I have looked at it, no way to go back. Information is lost. In many worlds, I just become entangled with the system - and I could theoretically disentangle after. Like quantum computing going to a deterministic outcome in a certain basis.

Showing collapse happened is really tricky because of decoherence. Similar to unmixing coffee and milk. But all systems we have observed so far do not show wave function collapse (granted these systems are generally small, but otherwise decoherence starts messing about).

These are just fundamentally different theories. Not just an interpretation, physically different outcomes.

Re:I Don't Understand Quantum Physics (2018) by EvgeniyZh on Monday October 26, 2026 @01:29PM (#50247579)
> In the Copenhagen interpretation, when I look at schrodingers cat, the wavefunction will collapse. After I have looked at it, no way to go back.

In the Copenhagen interpretation, there is a difference between measuring a system and entangling with it. There exists a unitary that entangles you with the cat, just like there exists a unitary that entangles the cat with the quantum device. By definition, unitary evolution is not a measurement in the Copenhagen interpretation.

> Showing collapse happened is really tricky because of decoherence. Similar to unmixing coffee and milk.

Unmixing would show the lack of collapse (in the specific case), though? To show collapse you'd need somehow experimentally prove that it is impossible to unmix. And to falsify collapse, you'd need to somehow experimentally prove that it is always possible to unmix. And if we go with your analogy, would you say the coffee with milk hasn't forgotten its initial state because it is technically possible to unmix them? Being able to manipulate the whole universe's wavefunction to unentangle particular subsystems is akin to having access to Maxwell's daemon, since decoherence increases entropy.