Weirdest thing ever!
The atoms or elementary paricles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts. (Werner Heisenberg)
Quantum science is beyond strange. I'm not sure how to think about it, let alone what to think about it. Not much wonder in why Einstein hated the idea.
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This makes my head hurt : )
Some interesting quotes from notable people on the subject.
Particle physics is the most accurately predicted area of science but is arguably the least understood. Another thing to make one's head hurt. Scientists have exceptionally well-conceived mathematics describing behavior but they have no idea how this behavior actually occurs. There is another physics operating at a level lower than science has ever gone. I would love to live long enough to find out what this is.
I hope you do too. But then what? If you gain this ultimate knowledge , what does that mean? There will always be an unknowable something, or the next frontier, won't there?
The ultimate makeup of existence is really not quite the business of man, in my opinion.
Will it cure cancer?
One step closer to understanding our reality. In the grand scale and in the long term, I cannot think of anything more profound than understanding that of which we are composed and that of which we are part.
Of course. That was true back when the world held that the geocentric model was correct. The heliocentric model was the next frontier at that time. That knowledge made a rather profound impact.
Probably true. I doubt mankind will ever get to the absolute bottom of things.
Lot's of worthwhile things will not cure cancer. To put this in terms that you should relate to, one could ask you if the impeachment trial will cure cancer.
Not quite the way I look at it, speaking for myself. For me, it is appreciation of God's works. Something to marvel about and praise Him for. It's why I like science. Who doesn't like to be appreciated?
Although I am not convinced there is a sentient creator, I agree with you in principle on this point. We are living at a time where science can take us well beyond our senses and also well beyond our intuition. With science we are learning of a reality that is so complex and foreign to our everyday life as to be considered truly surreal.
If there is a sentient creator, what it has produced is indeed awesome.
My point is it was awesome before any "latest" discovery. It was awesome when people just looked up at the stars.
Ultimate science will not answer all questions, it will create more questions. That is the way of the world.
My point is that learning about our reality is net good and we should keep doing so.
It was more awesome when we discovered that many of those 'stars' are in fact entire galaxies.
Knowledge enables us to accomplish more. The fact that we will never achieve omniscience does not bother me in the slightest.
Your perspective is strange to me. You seem to think that learning is pointless.
That's about what I was thinking while watching the video, the future, down to particles, can exist in different probabilities until we basically put a time stamp on it by the act of our observation and it becomes reality and now part of our known past.
This is so interesting. The video ending is exciting and intriguing!
Something that bothers me about the notion that observation creates what we observe. If that is so, what about the dust speck that just impacted on the ISS? Unlikely that anyone was observing it.
The observation effect is at a tiny scale. In our macro world (the intuitive world that human beings perceive) the variations in the state of a single particle are entirely undetectable. Even though the golf ball on your tee is composed of particles in superposition, the exact location of the particle will not affect the aerodynamics or look of the ball in any way.
Think of a bunker. Will it look different to you if the sand particles are in slightly different positions from one second to another? And that example is at our scale. The actual differences are at a ridiculously small scale.
The atom pictured above does look suspiciously like a golf ball, doesn't it?
Now that you mention it. Did that just happen because we observed it?
The other atoms that that particle impacted noticed it and reacted to it.
Even describing reality as quantum possibilities and potentialities does not obviate that reality is highly constrained. What the experimental results reveal is that chaos is a fundamental property of reality precluding the possibility of finite prediction at that fundamental level. However, chaos at that fundamental level is highly constrained; the probabilities do not support chaotic randomness.
Quoting Albert Einstein, "God does not play dice with the universe." The ability to describe reality with a quantum wave function confirms that reality is highly constrained.
Yes. It appears as though particles are chaotic (the wave function is seemingly random). As science progresses, I would not be surprised if science discovered a complex pattern behind wave functions. In other words, science might be able to replace the probabilistic mathematical description of a wave function with one that is deterministic.
Certainly is at the level above particles. A good thing too. Imagine a macro world where the walls of the building keep shifting locations. Our macro world does indeed appear to be wholly deterministic. But since reality is far more complex than we can comprehend, there could be effects without causes that we simply cannot detect.
Reality is quite a head trip.
That's an understatement for sure. It's difficult to even come up with a place to begin thinking about the implications. Makes one wonder if "quantum reality" isn't an oxymoron.