Random thoughts...
I was perusing the Many Worlds FAQ for insights, and the key phrase I came
away with was "thermodynamically irreversible process"; it's used in the MWI
to define when a "split" takes place. I was also pondering TA again, which I
still think doesn't imply backwards-in-time signals - from the point of view
of the photon (etc) that's engaged in the transaction. (I'm not sure how TA
works in an open universe.) This got me thinking about Copenhagen again, and
the ill-defined notion of "observation".
It's known that if you do the two-slit experiment (nominally: you see a
diffraction pattern) and "observe" a photon (now you see two bands) but then
erase the information you see the pattern again.
Now normally this erasure is done deep down in the guts of the experiment -
that is, you measure the photon, then "scramble" it with another virtual
photon (e.g. pipe the original source laser and another laser through a
backwards beam splitter). I'm wondering if this could be done with logical
scrambling. That is, say we measure the photon, and stuff the result in a
stable quantum dot. Store the result for a few minutes, then erase it. Now
look at the pattern.
I'm wondering if it really is a matter of information storage and processing
that's causing the "collapse" (in CI terms). Put another way, the condition
that induces the for "evaluating lazily" is the act of of recording
information and inducing the thermodynamic arrow of time as a result of that
information (e.g. producing macroscopic action).
I haven't a clue if the above makes any sense, but traffic has been light
lately. :)
Joshua
(Who hopes we don't cause a universal memory leak or crash by poking too
closely at the lazy evaluation mechanism.)
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