Yes, it is a thought experiment in which the quantum weirdness of a single particle is amplified artificially in such a way as to effect a macro sized cat. The cat either lives dies or exists in a live/dead state. It is not as though all of the particles in the cat jump a foot to the left. For that you need one of Adams' finite improbability drives.
Case -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David M Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2007 3:21 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MD] David M and DMB clearly disagree -what do others think? Hi Case No macro weirdness, never heard of Schrodinger's cat? David M ----- Original Message ----- From: "Case" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2007 7:05 PM Subject: Re: [MD] David M and DMB clearly disagree -what do others think? > DM, > > I am taking a sabbatical but you made a couple of point recently that I > would like to comment on: > > DM: I think SOM in your thinking is stoppping you from getting what I am > suggesting. > I'd be very interested in what others think and would point out that my > view > Agrees with the one in Sneddon's thesis on Anthony's site. > But your answer is an honest one and at last I think we can clearly see > what > > We are disagreeing about. > > [Case} > I have a few problems with Sneddon thesis not the least of which is his > toleration for Pirsig's teleological view of evolution and I am not > terribly > thrilled with Whitehead's theology, but as Sneddon points out Whitehead > makes a valuable contribution with his notion of Process and his > identification of "occasions" as the primary units of process and reality. > Occasions unlike experience do not require the involvement of subjects. In > fact experiences are subsets of occasions. I was especially taken with > this: > > "The occasion is the fundamental unit of reality, but it is characterized > by > change--it is not something static. On the contrary, when the occasion > acquires the 'phase' of creation, or finished product, it is no longer in > the process of creativity, and it ceases to be an occasion. It becomes > history, eternally unchanging in the form it has taken." > Sneddon - 1995 > > I think there is much to Sneddon's view that Pirsig is a "process > philosopher". > > Elsewhere you said: > > DM: This is an exception and an unusually simple situation, most processes > are far more complex and have many possible outcomes. In fact the ball > could > fly off according to quantum theory, only not very often. Science began > with > such simple situations because they were the only ones it could model. > There > is order in this cosmos, but disorder dominates. Science has to go to alot > of trouble to create experiments that exhibit significant levels of order. > See Roy Bhaskar's philosophy of science. > > [Case] > I do not think that quantum theory would account for anything as > macroscopic > as a ball flying off or being otherwise displaced in space and time. If > all > that weirdness were not resolved at the submicroscopic level I doubt if > the > macroscopic level would have enough stability for us to be here. On the > other hand this did get me thinking about how such quantum weirdness might > relate to the Big Bang. I have not really looked into this so it is > probably > nonsense but one thing about the Big Bang has always bothered me. If all > that matter had all that gravity pulling in into a point how could it get > loose? If you have all of the matter in the universe compressed into a > Euclidian point and all of the force of physics had achieved symmetry and > gravity fluctuated for even the tiniest fraction of a second, imagine the > explosion that might result. > > > > moq_discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
