On Sun, Jul 4, 2021 at 3:36 PM 'Brent Meeker' via Everything List < [email protected]> wrote:
>> I think I mentioned before that in David Deutsch's book "The Ghost In >> The Atom" he proposed an experimental test that would be very difficult, >> but not impossible, to perform that could decide between Copenhagen and >> Many Worlds; and the reason it's so difficult is not Many Worlds fault, >> the reason is that the conventional view says conscious observers obey >> different laws of physics, Many Worlds says they do not, so to test who's >> right we need a mind that uses quantum properties and algorithms. An >> intelligent quantum computer shoots photons at a metal plate one at a time >> that has 2 small slits in it, and then the photons hit a photographic >> plate. Nobody looks at the photographic plate till the very end of the >> experiment. The quantum mind has detectors near each slit so it knows which >> slit the various photons went through. After each photon passes the slits >> , but before they hit the photographic plate, the quantum mind signs a >> document saying that it has observed each and every photon and knows which >> slit each photon went through. It is very important that the document does >> NOT say which slit a photon went through, it only says that it went >> through one slit and only one slit and the mind has knowledge of which one. >> There is a signed document to this effect for every photon it shoots. Now >> the mind uses quantum erasure to completely destroy its memory of which >> slit any of the photons went through; the only part remaining in the >> universe is the document which states that each photon went through one and >> only one slit and the mind (at the time) knew which one. Now develop the >> photographic plate and look at it. If you see interference bands then the >> Many World interpretation is correct. If you do not see interference bands >> then there are no worlds but this one and the conventional quantum >> interpretation is correct. This works because in the Copenhagen >> interpretation when the results of a measurement enters the consciousness >> of an observer the wave function collapses, in effect all the universes >> except one disappear without a trace so you get no interference. In the >> Many Worlds model all the other worlds will converge back into one universe >> because information on which slit the various photons went through was the >> only thing that made one universe different from another, so when that was >> erased they became identical again and merged, but their influence will >> still be felt, you'll see ambiguous evidence that the photon went through >> slot A only and ambiguous evidence it went through slot B only, and that's >> what causes the interference pattern. > > *> And it doesn't work because it assumes that which-way can be both > observed and yet quantum erased. That's contrary to decoherence theory of > "observed"* > I don't know what you're talking about. An intelligent quantum computer is perfectly capable of creating a document specifying that at a certain time it had information in its memory banks that indicated which slot a photon went through but not actually mentioning which slot it was, and at a later time a quantum computer is also capable of using quantum erasure to remove that which way information from its memory banks so there no longer exists information anywhere about which slit the photon went through, although there is still knowledge that at one time that information was in its memory banks. > > > *and assumes some magic "quantum consciousness", hiding the problem > behind a lack of definition of consciousness.* > Wow, as enigmatic and bazaar as your first remark was, this one is even more so! The entire point of this experiment is to determine if conscious stuff operates according to the same laws of physics as non-conscious stuff, I'm betting that they do. John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis> lts9 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv2dpEVC%2BPwioAm9K%3D_Wsc4F5EiBCLrv8%3DY-RQ%3DxzQEwuw%40mail.gmail.com.
