A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality

[Guest]

"But Proietti and co’s result suggests that objective reality does not exist. In other words, the experiment suggests that one or more of the assumptions—the idea that there is a reality we can agree on, the idea that we have freedom of choice, or the idea of locality—must be wrong."

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613092/a-quantum-experiment-suggests-theres-no-such-thing-as-objective-reality/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

 

[Guest]

Most thought experiments read like they were devised by the Joker during an extra sadistic brainstorm — it takes either a supervillain or an ethical philosopher to rig a trolley like that! While Wigner's friend experiment is certainly a more humane Schrodinger's cat, it is no less mind-bending. Here's the simple version:

Wigner's friend, a physicist, is alone inside her laboratory measuring whether a photon sports a horizontal or vertical polarization. Before she measures it, the photon exists in a state of "superposition" — that is, its polarization is both horizontal and vertical at once. After she measures it, she receives an answer. The photon's polarization is either horizontal or vertical, not both. The superposition collapses.

As far as quantum mechanics go, that's simple. But Wigner is standing outside the laboratory at the moment. He doesn't know if his friend measured a photon or what that result would be. From his outside perspective, the photon and the record remain in a state of superposition.

For Wigner, the superposition stands; for Wigner's friend, it has collapsed to a definite state. Their realities have diverged, yet both realities remain equally valid. This led Eugene Wigner to argue that a quantum measurement could not exist without a conscious observer.

"It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to the consciousness," he wrote in Symmetries and Reflections. "It will remain remarkable, in whatever way our future concepts may develop, that the very study of the external world led to the conclusion that the content of the consciousness is an ultimate reality."

[little2add]

 

[Guest]

There's a couple options.

1.) The micro and macro have nothing to do with each other as far as reality goes. The laws/realities are completely separate and don't correlate with each other.

2.) They do correlate and the many world's theory is correct. So there's an infinity amounts of you's and everyone else. And every decision/moment new realities break off into parrallel universes/realities. You're not conscious as "you" in all of those realities necessarily. But "you" exist in them. 

 

So basically either reality is concrete and we're all in this universe together. We all share the same universe. Or the universe is something we carry like a shell. And it's not "out there". And it's completely unique and different to every single person. So I might know a good friend in this life. And my friend knows me. And my friend is my friend in my Universe. Yet in my friends Universe my friend may have never met me at all. Because in my friends Universe their family moved to another state and we didn't go to school together. But in my universe we knew each other and became best friends.

 

I believe in God so I think it would be disturbing if the many world's theory is right. But just because it's disturbing doesn't mean it's not true. One thing that has always freaked me out about dreams is how real the interactions are with people you know. Like in the dream it seems you're dealing with their exact personality as if it's them in that moment. Yet when you wake up you become aware it wasn't "them". But in the dream it was. At least that's always been my experience. Down to the very small details and everything.

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Guest

[Guest]

 

[Norseman82]