Re: [asa] Quantum quackery

Perhaps so. Wheeler has discussed a "delayed choice" version of the double slit experiment in which the "slits" are the 2 sides of a galaxy whose gravitational field deflects light from a distant quasar. In that case the observation apparently affects what happened billions of years ago. (N.B. - that has to do only with observation & not necessarily with the idea that the data has to enter someone's consciousness, an idea which I don't think Wheeler accepts.)

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Iain Strachan
  To: George Murphy
  Cc: bdffoster@charter.net ; asa@calvin.edu ; Carol or John Burgeson
  Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 6:38 PM
  Subject: Re: [asa] Quantum quackery

  On 9/19/07, George Murphy <gmurphy@raex.com> wrote:
    A few comments on this.
    With all due respect to Penrose & Smolin, I'm dubious of any claims that consciousness can be derived from QM. However, a case can be made for the idea that the reduction of the wave packet (i.e., a definite result of a measurement) occurs when consciousness comes into the picture. (E.g., the cat lives or dies when a conscious observer opens the box & looks.)

  The problem here for me is that if the cat is dead, then whether it is still warm or cold surely tells you whether the atom decayed a short while or a long while ago. Hence it looks as if the conscious observer caused an effect to happen in the past.

  Iain

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Received on Wed Sep 19 19:10:28 2007