Re: Question for religious parents

dragonlady wrote:
In article <1141345716.556879.133830@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"cjorp@xxxxxxxxx" <cjorp@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Maybe that's why I can do this: I sometimes actually come close to
thinking I can maybe really imagine Schrodinger's damned cat both dead
AND alive until the probablity wave is collapsed by opening the box....

Schrodinger's cat isn't both dead and alive; it exists in a
superposition of quantum states. That's what quantum theory says,
anyway. Quantum theory doesn't endorse contradictions.

Schrodinger asks us to imagine this "superposition of quantum states" --
that, in fact, the cat exists in both states at the same time.

"The name of that new mode (which is just a name for something we don't
understand) is superposition. What we say about an initially white
electron which is now passing through our apparatus with the wall out
is that it's not on _h_ and not on _s_ and not on both and not on
neither, but, rather, that it's in a superposition of being on _h_
*and* being on _s_. And what that means (other than "none of the
above") we don't know. And some of what this book is going to be about
are a number of attempts to (as it were) say something more about
superposition than that." -- pg. 11, _Quantum Mechanics and
Experience_, by David Z. Albert.

"According to the standard von-Neumann-Dirac formulation of quantum
mechanics (which we will consider in some detail in the next chapter)
the particles do not determinately pass through one slit or the other
when both A and B are open; rather, the theory tells us that each
particle follows a superposition of different trajectories and thus
ends up in a superposition of passing through A and passing through B.
A particle in a superposition of passing through each slit does not
determinately pass through A, does not determinately pass through B,
does not determinately pss through A and determinately pass through B,
and does not determinately not pass through A and determinately not
pass through B. Indeed, a particle that is in a superposition of
passing through A and B has *observable* physical properties that
differ from each of these four classical alternatives." -- pg. 5, _The
Quantum Mechanics of Minds and Worlds_, by Jeffrey A. Barrett.

Add 'em to the stack. :-)

I am NOT a quantum physicist, and but have a decent lay understanding
for a non-scientist, and his thought experiment is one which fascinates
me, so I've done more than the average amount of reading on the subject.

Ah. If we're going to make an argument from authority, I plan to be
beginning graduate work in philosophy of physics shortly. I have a
bachelors in physics and a lot of independent reading in philosophy,
because my DH is defending his philosophy of science dissertation on
Wednesday. Here's a link to his advisor's web page:
http://web.arizona.edu/~phil/faculty/rhealey.htm

--
C, mama to three year old nursling

.

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