TED Community » Loader Tron
About Me
- Location:
- United Kingdom, London
- Gender:
- Male
More About Me
I'm passionate about
Science, Computers and Movies... Whaddaya mean I'm a geek?
Comments
Load 3 more Comments (Showing 1 - 10 of 13)Favorite talks
This member doesn't have any favorite talks yet.
TEDCred score: +0.50 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.
A reply on Conversation: Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Superposition and Collapse of the Wave Function
A reply on Conversation: Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Superposition and Collapse of the Wave Function
A reply on Conversation: Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Superposition and Collapse of the Wave Function
A reply on Conversation: Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Superposition and Collapse of the Wave Function
Cat lives = infinity x nine
Until you looked at the cat then its wave form would collapse and it would be back to the standard issue nine lives.
Also if a cat did have a 'half-life' then I imagine, in the same way uranium decays into lead, a cat would decay into a weasel.
A reply on Conversation: Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Superposition and Collapse of the Wave Function
I think you've addressed one of the big problems with being human. We tend to think of our minds and bodies as a gateway to the world around us and this simply isn't true, it is far more accurate to think of them as filters to cut out the unnecessary information. This doesn't have to be specific to quantum mechanics we can only hear sounds within a limited spectrum and we can only see colours in a limited spectrum though we know there are many more sounds and colours out there. When you include quantum mechanics in this you get some idea of how much filtering is occurring. An interesting quote from the science film What the Bleep do we Know is "The brain processes 400 Billion bits of information a second. BUT, we are ONLY aware of 2,000 of those." -Dr. Joseph Dispenza, D.C.
Makes you wonder what we're missing out on.
A reply on Conversation: Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Superposition and Collapse of the Wave Function
There is also the fun but silly idea of rendered reality, which I think was mentioned in an episode of Through the Wormhole. It claims that we are living in a simulation where matter and time are quantised so that matter, when looked at up close 'pixelates' (quarks) and time runs at a very high resolution but still has a limited number of 'frames per second' or more properly called space-time atoms. And here is where the superposition comes into it, just like in a video game all the data for the environment is there but it only renders the bit you are looking at, at any given moment. When you're not looking at it, it can behave pretty much how it wants.
There is no real point to this idea other than to entertain the notion that I could, in fact, be Neo from The Matrix... but only the first one the other two sucked.
;-P
A reply on Conversation: Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Superposition and Collapse of the Wave Function
I just skimmed your profile and noted your interest in spacecraft propulsion and thought you might enjoy this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v24A0HNwAUA) assuming you haven't already seen it.
Enjoy
A reply on Conversation: Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Superposition and Collapse of the Wave Function
Particles don't have to be smaller than an atom to be in superposition, I refer you to the link posted by
Natasha Nikulina (http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_o_connell_making_sense_of_a_visible_quantum_object.html).
Also not only 'can' particles pop in and out of existence but in fact they do it all the time all around you and in you... The really interesting thing about this behaviour is that they don't require energy to do it. Well they do, but they don't need it at the moment they appear or disappear but can in fact 'borrow' the energy and pay it back later. Basically it is cause and effect but in reverse.
For that nugget we can thank the frantic mind of our friend Werner Heisenberg.
Enjoy
A reply on Conversation: Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Superposition and Collapse of the Wave Function
I would think of this as a multiplication problem, the more atoms/particles you add the more difficult it is to make them all behave in the same way. That said some theorists have suggested that it would technically be possible to walk through a wall by essentially teleporting from one side to the other. However it would probably require you to walk into the wall once a second for 7 or 8 times the age of the universe to be lucky enough to step through. It is basically the same as a room full of monkeys typing out the complete works of Shakespeare, there is a probability but it is a mighty small one. And, of course, that is before we get in to the problems of there being an observer.
How about you... Any theories?
A reply on Conversation: Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Superposition and Collapse of the Wave Function
If you asked me to prove the theory of gravity the answer is I can't. Fortunately we'll not all be flying off the planet as a result. This theory is the best fit for the observations we can make.
Same applies to quantum mechanics. A cogent paradigm would be that I assume theories are innocent until proven guilty and you are assuming they are guilty until proven innocent. If a theory is right until it is wrong you work with it then revise it, if it is wrong until it is right you would give up while it is wrong and never know it was right. In other words your logic halts progression.
If you intend to offer an explanation of the two slit experiment that differs from the current theory (which of course requires superposition to work) then I welcome it. Of course it would have to be a better fit for the observations than the current theory. If you can't offer an alternative then I recommend not telling people that it is a mistake to assume the best model is right, as this will mean that they, like me they will ask you for a better model..
It is up to you to prove the theory wrong not me or anyone else to prove it right because we already have enough evidence to support the theory. I recommend viewing the link posted by
Natasha Nikulina (http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_o_connell_making_sense_of_a_visible_quantum_object.html) as it is from TED and supports the idea of superposition.
Thanks again to Natasha for the link it is already worth its weight in gold.... that is, if it had mass.