When you turn to dust, you get over everything and have to be cleaned off. Perhaps I've been brought up amongst cleanliness fanatics!
Wow! The quantum eraser was a bit over my head. (italics mine) What qualifies as "observed?" a) the purely visual act of human observation without conscious judgment b) calculated human observation with the purpose of determining which slit the electron passed through c) observation by living organism a monkey
That's a bit of a grey area, as the delayed choice quantum eraser experiment shows. In your examples, A would count (assuming a human could visually determine which slit a single electron went through visually, which we cannot). B I'm not sure, don't know what you mean by "calculated human observation". C would, with the same restriction as A. Where there is no grey area: Measurement made, recorded, data available: No interference pattern. Measurement not made: interference pattern. (That is, "which slit" data.) Grey area: Measurement made, but distorted, erased, or destroyed in some way at some point in time. The delayed choice measures and then a finite amount of time after the measurement is made, the information is irretrievably destroyed, and you get an interference pattern, which seems retro-causal, which is a violation of about 100 rules of physics.
Then there might be other explanations that make sense. For instance, maybe we humans (and other living organisims) emit (currently undetectable) levels of electro-magnetic (waves or particles) that might be capable of influencing free subatomic particles. Therefore, the free electron is always physically real; however, it can be steered or influenced by human thought. You won't hurt my feelings if you destroy this answer. It's just a guess...
That would not explain the emergence of an interference pattern when electrons are fired at the apparatus one at a time, unless the implication is our expectations are causing the results. The problem with that explanation is that an interference pattern was NOT the expected result initially.
I was exploring your idea and this guy gave a good answer to my question: The answer is between 43 and 46 minutes into the video: [video]http://www.youtube.com/user/twcjr44[/video]
I know Tom lol, and he's right, strictly speaking. As an example, how many Diet Mountain Dews are in my fridge? What if I think I remember 6, but when I go look there's only 5? Faulty memory or a "glitch in the matrix"? Could be either. But if I took a PHOTO that showed 6, even if I have not looked at the photo, when I go look there will be 6 because things have to be consistent. However, if I delete the photo before looking the uncertainty goes up. Here's an excellent video where he goes in depth about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7hzSjnPikIU
He also ignores the "evidence" of remembering past lives which is born again into everyone in the form of Instincts. Instincts are learned responses that come back to us from former life experiences of our species. They indicate the presence of an Unconscious mental facility. They support Carl Jung anf Freud in hypothesizing a phylogenetic memory: Carl Jung: The Collective Unconscious is a storehouse of all the experiences of humankind, transmitted (genetically encoded, we now realize today), to each individual. As the repository for all past experiences, it includes even our pre-human animal ancestry. (Assumably through the genetic processes, though unknown to Freud and Jung at the time.) It becomes the primary base of a person's psyche, directing and influencing behavior. It is the deepest and most inaccessible level of the psyche. Jung believed that a person accumulates and files all of his past experiences, so does humankind, collectively. Jung was supported by Freud in that Freud predicted our eventual discovery of what he called "Phylogenetic Memory." Jung said, "the form of the world into which a person is born is already inborn in him, as a virtual image." (Jung, 1953, pg 18.
The observation of Instincts "prove it," to those who are willing to accept the evidnece as a proof. Everyone can deny anything, ad infitinuum, and do so with as long as they will. All others can do is produce evidence in support of previous life experiences and use that to support their own position =onthat issue. But the reasoninghere is that since humans had to have experienced the real world in order to develop an unconscious response to it, instincts, it seems undeniable for the reasonable person to doubt a phylogenetic memory of those past lives of our Unconscious mind, if not the clean slate of our conscious mind. This futher infers an "ancient of ancients" living within us all, one who maight elect to allow a "personal relationship" to develop much along the lines we hear Christians claim possible. The claim seems to have evidence from non-Christians too, in that flashs of insight are reported by people who claim they became aware of something in a way which defies explanation, and to them, seems to have come externally from them and their conscious thinking: In 1920 when Neils Bohr was getting on a bus and thinking intently only of his daughter, the entire structure of quantum mechanics came to him in a flash (as he describes it). Where that flash or intelligence came from, and the timing of it, this is the Pure Intelligence I'm speaking about.
I'm down with that. But that "Pure Intelligence" is NOT the gawd of the buybull, or koran, or any other religious text. It is simply All that Is, and we are all little tiny pieces of it playing a game.
... good guess... Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 3284 (2002); doi:10.1063/1.1516861 (3 pages) Remote detection of human electroencephalograms using ultrahigh input impedance electric potential sensors C. J. Harland, T. D. Clark, and R. J. Prance Centre for Physical Electronics, School of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Sussex, Brighton, Sussex, BN1 9QT, United Kingdom (Received 29 July 2002; accepted 4 September 2002) In this letter, we demonstrate the use of very high performance, ultrahigh impedance, electric potential probes in the detection of electrical activity in the brain. We show that these sensors, requiring no electrical or physical contact with the body, can be used to monitor the human electroencephalogram (EEG) revealing, as examples, the α and β rhythms and the α blocking phenomenon. We suggest that the advantages offered by these sensors compared with the currently used contact (Ag/AgCl) electrodes may act to stimulate new developments in multichannel EEG monitoring and in real-time electrical imaging of the brain. © 2002 American Institute of Physics What I see as a possibility based upon this evidencethat our mind sends out electromagnetic waves, is that our mind also can and does receive electromagnetic waves from other minds. This forms the basis for hypothesizing the presence of the Collective mind, a World-wide presence of a Collective Unconscious shepherd-like entity that has existed since man, and been present in every generation, continually, knowing all about our relationship with the real world, our history, and our place in Nature. This is the Third Eye which we add to upon birth and subtract from upon death, as we are replaced by the Uncosncious mind that is born again into the kingdom of the heavens reigning over us.
Maybe not the God of the religious texts as understood by the church people, for sure, but a close reading with these pre-set ideas, instead of theirs, is interesting: Revelation 21:4-5 And God, (blessing them with Total Phylogenetic Consciousness: [Carl Jung]), shall wipe away, (in their awakened Unconscious Mind: [Freudian Hypothesis]), all tears from their eyes, (for life is a genetically remember able, a continuum, we shall remember from one generation to the next living generation); and, (in genetic memories of prior existences held in our Unconscious Mind) there shall be no more death... (For we shall not all "sleep:" [1Co15:51], but total phylogenetic Consciousness will have evolved), neither sorrow... (For we, individually, are part of a living continuum of our own past, flowers upon our genetic vine), nor crying,.. (for we are happy in these revelations of reconstitution from our human gene pool), neither shall there be any more pain, (as men will have neurological control, a self-hypnotic ability to stop the nerve signals to the brain),... for the former things (in Modern Homo sapiens paradigm of the life experience) are passed away. And he, (the Christ, the ancient, phylogenetic, Collective Unconscious Mind in their own Kingdom within), that sat upon the throne (within the kingdom of the evolving Homoiousian sapiens' brain: [Luke 17:21]) said, Behold, (in this way, through evolution: [Gen 9:11-18]), I make all things (in human experience) new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true, (i.e.; words of Christ himself, who is the experiential presence of Truth in us, rational, the Unconscious mind), and (worthy of) faithful (belief).
This conclusion assumes that micro-reality (quantum mechanics) is consistent with macro-reality. Is that assumption correct? How can we be sure a different rule-set does not apply from micro to macro reality? Current travels in the center of a conductor at low frequencies but at high frequencies current travels on the "skin" or outer surface. A different rule-set applies to current depending on the frequency of the signal.
Well, the experimental results of the double slit experiment imply that a discrete piece of matter becomes two discrete pieces of matter, and does not propagate in a straight line, as matter must, but as a wave. Such things are not possible in a material reality. https://www.dropbox.com/s/dvel8yl1i9odmuz/What is Reality 4.pdf
As I'm understanding it, electrons behave as waves of probability without a conscious observer. With a conscious observer they behave as electrons and travel in a straight lines. How are we sure about the assumption that "the rules that apply to electrons at the quantum level directly apply to planets and galaxies and everything in the universe?" Isn't it possible that rules that are true on a micro level are untrue on a macro level?
I know it, because I accept the plain reality that our conscious minds are the product of our nervous systems. It's only those who live in denial of a truth as plain as the noses on their faces who insist on believing in spirits and an afterlife.
Life as we know it is basically a chemical process. When it stops, it stops. Atheists DO know what happens after death, since there is no shortage of thoroughly observed instances of death. I suppose one could argue that atheists, like Christians, only know what happens to the physical body after death. Personally, I'm convinced I'll spend the rest of eternity inhabiting a teapot currently orbiting Jupiter. Prove me wrong!
You are correct. That is nonsensical. The laws of physics are the laws of physics. A bit of matter, in motion, travels in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force. Except when that bit of matter is an electron, water molecule, or buckyball, which only acts like matter when we observe it. Which makes it a reasonable assumption that the same thing happens on a macro scale. To give an example: Assume, for the sake of discussion that there is no sentient life anywhere but earth. I don't believe that for a moment, but just for discussion assume it's true. What that means is the 13 billion year old galaxies seen in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image never existed, except as probabilities (though the probability may have been 99.999%) until we made that image. When we did so, a random number generator (remember, these are metaphors, not meant to be taken literally) rolled some dice, and based on the probabilities and roll of the dice, the galaxies were rendered for the first time, ever, and fed into our super telescope. But, now that they have been recorded, and that recording seen by millions and copied onto hard drives all over the planet, the results have to be consistent, so if we look at that same patch of sky, we're going to see the exact same thing we saw before.
I'm going to become a part of the Solaris ocean. The only question I have about it is what it will be like when my mind is dying. It's an incredibly sad thought to me here and now, though who knows what the experience would be like, if indeed there would be any at all. There might be some final dreaming. Actually, I've speculated that time might kind of stand still for you at death, giving you an eternity (strictly from your own perspective) of dreaming. But, I don't know. Dreams are also more a of a false memory than a live occurrence, I think, something we can look back on as we're approaching a waking state and then regain consciousness proper. Since there is no waking from death, there may well in fact just be nothing to experience throughout the dying process. Consciousness certainly is a strange thing to ponder and try to understand. By the way, I caught what I would consider an error in your post, namely the reference to "the physical body." What other body is there, I must ask? It is one body, one mind, from all that we can observe. The idea of mind being separate from body is illusory.
If a baseball is thrown and no one observes it, does is travel in a straight line or a wave of possibility? I'd guess -a straight line. Therefore, I'm not so sure that the rules that apply to subatomic matter apply to baseballs.
That assumption is not an accurate one, nor have I seen it used in Physics. In fact, there are entire fields of study based on observations that Quantum interaction does not follow the lines of traditionally accepted theory/law.
As I understand it, with something as big as a baseball, in theory they "could" propagate as waves, but there's 2 conditions that are all but impossible to meet. First, the baseballs would have to be molecule by molecule identical. Second, the slit to screen distance would be enormous... We're talking light years. But, in theory, under the right conditions, it could be done.
The first stage is the initial condition; The second stage is the initial decay; The third stage is putrefacation; The fourth stage is black putrefaction; The fifth stage is butyric fermentation The sixth stage is dry decay. All of these steps take at least 50 days to a year to do this.