On 12/3/2012 8:46 AM, John Clark wrote:
> If the information is not recorded, e.g. the photon is absorbed or is
just let
travel off to infinity the interference is lost.
That is incorrect, you've got it backward. If the information on what slit the electron
went through is not recorded, that is to say if you DON'T know what slit the electron
went through then you DO see a interference pattern.
That's where you're wrong; read the paper more carefully. If you record the which-way the
interference is lost. But *also* if you don't record it, if nobody records it and the
photon just flies off to infinity or is absorbed in the wall, the interference is lost.
The interference pattern occurs *only* if the which way information is *erased*, e.g. by
placing the lens so that which ever slit it went through it is focused to the same point.
The important difference is that consciousness or human knowledge does not have some
extra-physical effect in destroying the interference pattern. The interference pattern is
lost just because the information is "out there"; whether anybody knows about it or
records it or not.
Brent
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