From: John Clark (jonkc@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Thu Aug 19 1999 - 22:48:20 MDT
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Lee Daniel Crocker <lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net> Wrote:
>But doesn't the experimental disproof of Bell's inequality give us
>the answer?
I don't see how.
>We will see the interference pattern, because our
>requirement that the QC be entirely reversible and maintain quantum
>coherence throughout the experiment forbids us from assuming that
>the electrons went through either slot.
Not so, you can place detectors next to the slots and know for sure
if an electron went through it or not, but so far whenever we do that
the interference pattern goes away, if we perform the Deutsch
experiment it might not. Nobody knows.
>Our QC cannot by definition /record/ its observation (or even the fact that
>it made one), because that would be irreversible,
That's why the document he signs just says the electron went through one
and only slot but it doesn't say which one. The observer knows but then
the memory of the outcome of the experiment is erased, it's brain is put
into exactly the same state it was in before the experiment; if Copenhagen
is right this will have no effect and we will still not see interference, but if we do...
>so we are forbidden from assuming that it made/ an observation;
The observer told us he did and he's a reputable scientist , besides we
can always repeat it with others.
>we only want to assume it did because we have chosen to call it conscious.
> But the electrons don't care about our silly definitions
To tell you the truth I just don't know what electrons want. Perhaps they're
interested in consciousness or perhaps not, on the other hand perhaps they
like to split the universe every time they must make a "decision" and
like to rejoin the universes if they become identical again, or perhaps not.
One thing I do know, whatever the truth is it's weird.
>There's nothing special about the QC to change that.
You seem very certain of that, lots of people are certain but nobody
knows and we'll never know by just siting in a armchair and thinking about it.
Aristotle used some very intricate pure logic and concluded with
certainty that women MUST have fewer teeth than men. They don't.
Aristotle had a wife, he could have counted her teeth at any time but
never bothered to because he already knew the truth, or thought he did.
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
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