Re: consciousness
- From: HMSBeagle <jsbach@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2007 00:07:03 -0400
On Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:06:25 -0700, Don Geddis <don@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What causes the wave function to collapse to an event?
Nobody knows. There's a huge chain of physical events between the progress
of a single photon, and the final observation by a human being. It's the
height of intellectual laziness to just assume that human consciousness
MUST be the causal agent to make the wavefunction collapse.
The actual equations of quantum mechanics (the things that have been verified
to an amazing degree by experimental evidence) NEVER talk about ANY collapse
of the wavefunction.
Well put.
For the interested reader, see also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_decoherence
Yet we "appear" to observe only definite outcomes. This is indeed a puzzle,
but saying "consciousness causes it" is only slightly less mystical than
saying "God causes it" when talking about any other phenomena.
This is the bridge between the quantum and classical worlds, and
although Penrose is a smart man, thinking about this nearly drives him
nuts (IMHO). Penrose has come up with some interesting hypotheses
about the bridge between the quantum and classical. One of them
involves the interaction of gravity with mass.
It isn't a well-supported conclusion, nor does it carry much explanatory
power. And finally, it opens as many new, unresolved, questions as it
appears to close.
Yes. Wikipedia says that its an unfalsifiable claim, therefore it
doesnt even advance our understanding of the world.
Whenever the active detector fails to click, the experimenter deduces (or
assumes) the electron traversed the other slit. Thus, the interaction
occurs in the observer's mind!
Even if the experimenter isn't in the room at the time, and doesn't return
to look at the results for decades.
In your theory, the room and equipment just sit there, in some odd
superposition state, until someone comes in to read the printouts.
Even better, it could just be the janitor coming by to empty the wastebaskets.
He's not aware of any quantum theory, doesn't have any idea what the machine
does, clearly isn't able to make any conclusion at all about electrons and
slits and paths. But yet, if this conscious janitor should happen to turn
over the printouts and take a look, that will cause the wavefunction to
collapse too? Who's making the deduction then?
Brian Greene ends up saying this exact thing every time he gives a
lecture around a bunch of philosophers.
Perhaps God did it. That's as useful an explanation as yours is.
You cannot reject it as absurd, when it fits the facts, and you cannot
offer any other explanation.
I can't prove that it's false, of course.
(see above)
.
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