Re: Quantum Immortality = no second law

[Michael Rosefield]

It's not so much the input of energy, it's the production of more entropy
where the energy is taken from.

On 17/04/2008, Telmo Menezes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
> I would like to argue that in setting this experiment, energy is being
> expended to prevent the increase in entropy, albeit not in an obvious
> way.
>
> It is a trivial observation that systems may be devised that prevent
> increases in entropy by paying energy costs. One example is an ice
> cube in the freezer.
>
> In the case of this experiment, and assuming MWI, we are creating a
> scenario where the atomic decay is not possible from the
> experimenter's perspective. However, the experimenter is setting a
> system that includes the rifle and the geiger counter. Both these
> devices need energy to operate. Maybe it's just a convoluted version
> of the ice cube in the freezer?
>
> Best regards,
> Telmo Menezes.
>
> On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 12:18 AM, nichomachus
>
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
>
> >  In the description of the quantum immortality gedanken experiment, a
> >  physicist rigs an automatic rifle to a geiger counter to fire into him
> >  upon the detection of an atomic decay event from a bit of radioactive
> >  material. If the many worlds hypothesis is true, the self-awareness of
> >  the physicist will continue to find himself alive after any length of
> >  time in front of his gun, since there exist parallel worlds where the
> >  decay does not occur.
> >
> >  On a microscopic scale this is analogous to the observing a reality in
> >  which the second law of thermodynamics does not hold. for example,
> >  since there is a non-zero probability that molecular interactions will
> >  result in a decrease in entropy in a particular sealed volume under
> >  observation, there exist histories in which this must be observed.
> >
> >  This is never observed. Therefore the MWI is shown to be false.
> >  >
> >
>
> >
>


-- 
"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist-"
Last words of Gen. John Sedgwick, spoken as he looked out over the parapet
at enemy lines during the Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864.

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