On Tue, 18 Jun 2013 05:02:42 -0700, Carol wrote:
So, to put it more succinctly, while the cat is in the box, the
battery is both dead and alive.
Yes.
Which explains why I hit my remote if it doesn't work (WORK,
damn you!). Have I got that right?
I should defer to Allen Esterson but it is my understanding that
you must have the following conditions:
(1) while the cat/robot/TV remote is inside of box and no
observation can be made, all of these things can be alive and
dead.
(2) the act of observation or measurement causes one of the
states to take over.
This has to do with "quantum superposition" which has an entry
on Wikipedia from which I quote:
|Quantum superposition is a fundamental principle of quantum
|mechanics that holds that a physical system-such as an
|electron-exists partly in all its particular, theoretically possible
|states (or, configuration of its properties) simultaneously; but,
|when measured or observed, it gives a result corresponding to
|only one of the possible configurations (as described in interpretation
|of quantum mechanics).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_superposition
The article goes over the math that explains this phenomenon and
may be of the useful to the mathematically informed.
Quantum superposition is supposed to apply only to quantum level
events and Schrodinger wanted to pointed out how weird it was when
applied to our "normal scale" of existence that includes cats, robots,
and TV remote controls. However, I presume that certain cognitive
phenomena might be explained by it such as memory operation.
When one learns a list of words, the representations of the words
are stored in some form in the cognitive system and/or brain. Each
word has a probability of being remembered and a probability of
being lost/inaccessible *simultaneously* but we don't know if a
person can recall/recognize a previously experienced word until
actually tested. Now, I'm not a physicist but the point is that a
word in memory is in two possible states: (1) available for
reproduction, and (2) lost or unavailable for reproduction, in other
words, you both "know" and "don't know" the word at the same
time until you're tested for it. I don't know how accurate this
description is but I assume that something similar is going on
in quantum computing but, listen, *that* is way above my pay
grade. ;-)
Allen, can you help?
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
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