“It gets boring at home. How many reruns of Abbott and Costello movies can a guy watch on TV?”–Bud Abbott
It’s summer vacation time, and that means reruns. For the next couple of weeks I’ll be reprising some oldies but goodies. I’ll intersperse the sublime and ridiculous, as always. Let’s start with a Quantum Weirdness review in preparation for my next blockbuster conjecture, which might actually be published before the fall.
Quantum Weirdness 101: The Double-Slit Experiment
“Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.”–
Neils Bohr
With apologies to Douglas Adams–don’t panic! Although an understanding of a few basic concepts of quantum mechanics will be helpful in following some of the Millennium Conjectures, it’s actually not that hard to grasp. No math is needed. The following video gives a clear and entertaining description of the wave-particle duality of the sub-atomic world. If you weren’t already familiar with the concept, this should give you what you need to “get it.” What it won’t allow you to do is come to grips with it, or even believe it. But you’d better believe it. Quantum theory is one of the most rock solid, experimentally verified fields in all of science. And whether you believe it or not, don’t even think of explaining it. The world’s most brilliant physicists have been debating the implications for decades and are nowhere near a consensus. If you’d like a little more after the video, including a description of some of the leading explanations, here is a text primer.
The Millennium Conjectures™ 
A Hitchhiker reference! Hooray!
You won’t see those too often on my blog. Not any more often than I use a towel, that is.
😀
You would be surprised how often I drip dry! 😛
So what does the double slit experiment suggest about consciousness? Is it ultimately part of the equation?
In my opinion, it most certainly does. But how and why? That is the 64 dollar question!
It sure is the big question and is more than intriguing. If it’s part of the equation then does it seemlessly become incorporated into the equation when conscious beings come into existence or was consciousness always existing to some degree at the the subatomic level?
If either of these ideas are true then do we scrap the idea of a brain created illusion of consciousness as well? I think you must at that point.
Reblogged this on JimMorrisonDreamDiaries and commented:
Most interesting thing I’ve read today is this. Please watch this amazing educational clip shared from The Millenium Conjecture and learn something about Quantum Weirdness.
Schrödinger’s Cat depends on you! Look now to determine whether it is dead or alive!
Seeing as my wife is a veterinarian, I’m assuming the cat will always be alive when she looks, and therefore always dead when I look to even thing out. 😉
Since I love cats so much, I hope it was your wife who looks
Fascinating!
We must be careful not to be confused between the conceptual model used to explain superposition and the subsequent collapse of the probabilities to one (the ‘dead/alive cat’, unresolved until you see it) and what really happens. Quantum mechanics was happening long before human consciousness came alone. As I understand it, part of the intrusion of conscious thought into the way the wave-front collapses came about as a result of rather loosely worded translations of the orginal German, rather than because the physicists involved thought it was actually happening. Quantum physics IS weird and counter-intuitive at the macro level, but it’s not THAT weird.
Ah, but what did come first? The chicken or the cat? 😉
I’m feeling quite weak after reading this, but will be back… I thought I had it for a second there, but no, it’s gone
Did you watch the video? Anyway, Feinman said that nobody understands it, so don’t be concerned.
Yes I did this morning, then trying to – I won’t say explain – ‘relay’ it I came back, but couldn’t get it to load on this machine. I will just say ‘look at this’ instead!