Quantam philosphy - Implications

Out of the window is the law of noncontradiction, simply we have a physical proof that something can be in two states at the same time that are contradicting. it is evident not just from the this experiment of particle and waves but from others including quantum spin.

This staple of a premise being logically impossible to be true or false, right or wrong, dead or alive removed from any subjective view does dent universal logics (there are universal truths in our world philosophically) since it says that we each "create" our world rather than participate in it.

Secondly that our subjective influence on one such system influences other systems that are entangled with it. In quantum physics there are entangled particles, particles that have made contact with each other, think of it like 2 billiard balls hitting each other. When a measurement is made on one of the particles the other particle is exhibiting the opposite. So this spooky action states makes fertile ground for some new age ideas, think telepathy of particles or perhaps evidence for remote viewing.

Being the subjective interpretation that it is, in essence it is inferring that rather than the universe is being, it is becoming. To an extent it is alluding to the fact that our consciousness is shaping our universe into what we perceive as reality. Dare i say that it tells us that we might have a soul ...


Need I say that absolute determinism is out of the question at this point, since the idea that the universe is like a big machine where everything has been set in motion from day one with no influence that a person can have on his past, present or future. Since simply that holds out to be false experimentally :P It is the more of a free-will universe where to some extend determinism deals with out past but holds little influence on our future and doesn't predict our future .

In fear of making this post more disjointed than it already is, I'll stop this series at this in hope of expanding on it later on, sorry for making it long but I tried to cut it up as much as possible. I tried to limit my explanation as much as possible too, so I don't know if i made any leaps of logic.

Thanks to Observer for serving as the inspiration to these posts based on you post about determinism and the view that you can build a computer big enough to map out the paths of all humans if given enough information, and I hope I made you re-think that possibility. Sorry it took so long to write this too.

Quantum philosophy - What it means

In the previous post, I mentioned the double slit experiment. In that experiment the Results are determined by the subjective outlook of the observer. If he wants to see light as waves it will be waves and if he wants it to be particles it will act as such. but never both at the same time.

The results of that different experiments were replicated in several more complex ones, that address any other possibility of experimental error, the mathematical models correspond to the results.

So What does this all mean ?

Interpreting the experimental findings has been the unorthodox part of quantum, since it threw determinism and the mechanistic view of the universe out of the window. It is the attempt to bridge the gap between what happens at the subatomic level and why it isn't observed in our universe at a larger scales.

The most widely supported view is that of the Copenhagen's interpretation which simply says that every particle is described by its wavefuntion that dictates its probability to be found in any place, and upon measurement that wave collapses placing the particle into what the subject is expecting of it with that measurement and that every measurement influences the end result. wave function in this interpretation means more of a non-committal mode rather than an actual wave like movement of particles.

Just in terms of reference to other interpretations in case you are saying that what this suggests is way too woo like and way too far fetched that it can't make sense (who said the universe should make sense). I won't discuss Hidden variable interpretation since it is old, and mostly a discarded attempt to hold on to classical mechanistic view of the world


Many World interpretation
this is the interesting interpretation that explains that instead of what happens after something is observed and all the other possibilities are discarded to form the current reality. It says that all those probabilities actually occur and we are only able to perceive one of those realities.
Those realities (universes) are part of a bigger multiverse which encompasses all those universes. If it happens that any 2 universes happen to intersect then they would end up merging into a single universe. It helps remove the fact that we are participants in shaping the universe (atleast the one that we live in) and back to participants... Do you remember Sliders.

Quantum Philosophy - Prologue

My knowledge of the subject is rudimentary, from my perspective, so I'll try to explain to the best of my abilities. Plus I'll try to place my tendency to go to the moon and back when discussing something on a leash.

To start the subject up, I'd like to quote something that was said in the course "introduction to quantum mechanics". The professor started the class by saying this (paraphrase):

Look, if you teach an introductory course on quantum mechanics, and the students don't have nightmares for weeks, tear their hair out, wander around with bloodshot eyes, etc., then you probably didn't get the point across.

A lot of great thinkers in the past had a tough time swallowing what quantum mechanics indicated about our reality, Einstein was quoted on the subject saying "God doesn't play dice with the universe".

Essentially while classical Newtonian physics can predict every fall of the sparrow, quantum mechanics can only leave us with possibilities. The real trouble with quantum mechanics doesn't arise from the fact that we can't predict the future in it ala classical physics. The real trouble arises from the fact that not only is that the future is indeterministic, the past is also indeterministic. Also that the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics doesn't arise from our own ignorance like statistical probabilities it is an inherent attribute of the system .

Still reading ?? REALLY ?

Since the days of Democritus it was thought that everything tangible in this universe is made up of atoms that form the building blocks of our reality, Well quantum mechanics is the study of subatomic particles, the building blocks of all the universe.

So lets look at a simple experiment. you remember the science experiment where you have a tank of water and u place and object with two slits and turn on the wave generator to see how waves interfere with each other ? And do you remember them referring to light as both wave and particle in nature.
Well that experiment can be done with light.

double-slit experiments reveal that photons,
the quantum entities giving rise to light and other
forms of electromagnetic radiation, act both like
particles and like waves. A single photon will
strike the screen in a particular place,
like a particle (left)- But as more photons strike
the screen, they begin to create an interference pattern
(center). Such a pattern could occur only if each photon
had actually gone through both slits, like a wave (right).

If that isn't baffling enough, if you only permit one photon to pass through the slits. The interference pattern is still observed suggesting that wave went through. But when you add an apparatus that can detect which slit the photon passed through the interference pattern disappears. This experiment can be replicated on electrons, neutrons, atoms, and theoretically to other bigger things.

It is as if what we are experementing on is making future predictions and providing us with the answers that we want to see.

I'll stop here for this post, and let you think about what implications such result can have.