Heavy Duty Quantum Physics!
Forget about the threat that mankind poses to the Earth: our very ability to study the heavens may have complicated the cosmos.
Quantum theory says that whenever we observe or measure something, we can select out a specific quantum state from what otherwise would have been a multitude of states, each of which could have been selected out with varying probabilities.
Over the past few years, cosmologists have taken this powerful theory of what happens at the level of subatomic particles and tried to extend it to understand the universe, since it began in the subatomic realm during the Big Bang.
But there is an odd feature of the theory that philosophers and scientists still argue about. In a nutshell, the theory suggests that quantum systems can exist in many different physical configurations at the same time. By observing the system, however, we may pick out one single 'quantum state', and therefore force the system to change its configuration.
(Our observations do not change the system so much as help determine what state we find ourselves a part of. This latter facet, related to treating the universe as a quantum state, has puzzled theorists for some time.)
The long and short of all this is that the Universe has, over a period of time, become more and more complex. What started out as ordinary matter was then split into atoms, which for a long time was considered the basic building block of all creation.
Then we found out that atoms were composed of even smaller objects which in turn were made of things that were smaller still.
This kept up till we got to where we are now with string theory and dark matter and all sorts of exotic material that keeps getting smaller and smaller and more and more complicated.
If, as modern quantum physics tells us, the mere act of observing something affects what it is, and what it will be, then perhaps things things really ARE getting more complicated just because we now study them and look for complexity when there was none there to begin with!
As usual I'm probably full of shit but it is still fun to think about these things!
Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com and the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com
Quantum theory says that whenever we observe or measure something, we can select out a specific quantum state from what otherwise would have been a multitude of states, each of which could have been selected out with varying probabilities.
Over the past few years, cosmologists have taken this powerful theory of what happens at the level of subatomic particles and tried to extend it to understand the universe, since it began in the subatomic realm during the Big Bang.
But there is an odd feature of the theory that philosophers and scientists still argue about. In a nutshell, the theory suggests that quantum systems can exist in many different physical configurations at the same time. By observing the system, however, we may pick out one single 'quantum state', and therefore force the system to change its configuration.
(Our observations do not change the system so much as help determine what state we find ourselves a part of. This latter facet, related to treating the universe as a quantum state, has puzzled theorists for some time.)
The long and short of all this is that the Universe has, over a period of time, become more and more complex. What started out as ordinary matter was then split into atoms, which for a long time was considered the basic building block of all creation.
Then we found out that atoms were composed of even smaller objects which in turn were made of things that were smaller still.
This kept up till we got to where we are now with string theory and dark matter and all sorts of exotic material that keeps getting smaller and smaller and more and more complicated.
If, as modern quantum physics tells us, the mere act of observing something affects what it is, and what it will be, then perhaps things things really ARE getting more complicated just because we now study them and look for complexity when there was none there to begin with!
As usual I'm probably full of shit but it is still fun to think about these things!
Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com and the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com
Labels: heavy duty shit, quantum physics
posted by Allan W Janssen | 5:36 p.m.
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