From: jmcasey@pacific.net.sg
Date: Fri Aug 20 1999 - 08:13:46 MDT
>Again there is nothing special about an
>observer in this, the same thing would happen if nobody looked at the film,
>or even if you used a brick wall instead of film, because the important thing
>is not that the photon makes a record (whatever that is) but simply that it is
>destroyed.
But can it really be said to have been destroyed? Doesn't the photon add its energy to a particle "here" rather than "there," which may (in fact, must) have ramifications later and therefore imply, observer or not, that the two universes never rejoin?
Or is it that both states exist in the same universe until a definitive measurement traces it back to the original root cause, and thus fragments the potential states and renders one nonexistent retroactively?
And if the second is implied, since this happens a googol times a day, is not our universe populated with an infinite number of potential universes which only collapse as and when someone develops the means to measure them (which in turn is almost completely insignificant, since measuring *one photon* mostly won't impact the potential course of the universe too much)?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:04:50 MST