tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post8723570192134860394..comments2023-09-27T07:44:19.769-04:00Comments on Sabine Hossenfelder: Backreaction: Is COVID there before you measure it?Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.comBlogger190125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-41938804196393015262020-11-02T23:26:56.642-05:002020-11-02T23:26:56.642-05:00I studied physics. My professor was Lowel Brown in...I studied physics. My professor was Lowel Brown in 1974.<br />In 1994 he published his book, "Quantum Field Theory".<br />I saw him on TV. The host would not let him use the word "Quark".<br />He had that same surprised look as when he learned how ignorant and lazy I was, and yet I passing his exclusive little honors class. Guessing my way through college made life easy for meClarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01276788684270214790noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-70931728125143186152020-08-27T19:09:59.274-04:002020-08-27T19:09:59.274-04:00The father of a friend of mine, who I also know, j...The father of a friend of mine, who I also know, just died of Covid-19. Two other people I know are in intensive care for Covid.Lawrence Crowellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12090839464038445335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-56772087744889025282020-07-16T20:07:14.587-04:002020-07-16T20:07:14.587-04:00Thanks for the link to the Yu/Nikolic paper; unfor...Thanks for the link to the Yu/Nikolic paper; unfortunately it's too technical for a layman like myself. I note however that the word "computer" doesn't appear in it. jim_hhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10618326446656475641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-35254701128605796092020-07-14T19:01:24.883-04:002020-07-14T19:01:24.883-04:00Sabine,
You didn’t link to it. I made a mistake. ...Sabine,<br /><br />You didn’t link to it. I made a mistake. Sorry. Lorraine Fordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00175567853773691970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-73246720394065030282020-07-13T23:31:12.907-04:002020-07-13T23:31:12.907-04:00Lorraine,
I can't remember linking to any vid...Lorraine,<br /><br />I can't remember linking to any video, but trust me when I say that I perfectly well know what's the difference between a logical and a physical qubit. I find it bad terminology for science communication because I know from my own experience that even a lot of *physicists* fail to grasp the relevance of distinguishing both. Hence, I only talk about physical qubits. Sabine Hossenfelderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-13118056448890152302020-07-13T19:43:35.695-04:002020-07-13T19:43:35.695-04:00Re binary digits and qubits:
There are no actual ...Re binary digits and qubits:<br /><br />There are no actual binary digits, but conventional computers can be made to represent the binary digit concept. In a conventional computer, the higher <i>or</i> the lower voltage can represent “one” or “true”: there goes the idea that physical computers are performing actual logical operations. Also, in the real world, numbers [1] do not exist as an array Lorraine Fordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00175567853773691970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-56318129193928594202020-07-13T06:41:28.954-04:002020-07-13T06:41:28.954-04:00Sabine,
Your link to the Q-CTRL Quantum Fundament...Sabine,<br /><br />Your link to the Q-CTRL Quantum Fundamentals videos is misleading because the videos don’t seem to specifically mention the difference between the theoretical qubit and the physical qubit. The online qiskit.org (open-source quantum computing software development) textbook is more realistic:<br /><br /><i>“Quantum computing requires us to encode information in qubits. Most Lorraine Fordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00175567853773691970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-84273851056469788292020-07-12T21:37:38.017-04:002020-07-12T21:37:38.017-04:00Just a thought. We know that we get spectra for d...Just a thought. We know that we get spectra for different elements when they are heated very hot. Is it possible that there are other invisible orbitals of sorts, for particles. When the particle goes from a high energy orbital to a low orbital, we see electron, muon, or tauon or neutrinos of different flavors.Michael John Sarnowskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00528454593064091302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-9716695658419439142020-07-12T09:58:29.964-04:002020-07-12T09:58:29.964-04:00Re Lorraine Ford 11:43 PM, July 11, 2020:
To clari...Re Lorraine Ford 11:43 PM, July 11, 2020:<br />To clarify, that last sentence should perhaps have said: The “qubit” idea is an idealised version of the less than ideal physical reality found in a quantum computer (i.e. real "qubits" don't actually exist). Lorraine Fordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00175567853773691970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-15296702526753509092020-07-11T23:43:03.913-04:002020-07-11T23:43:03.913-04:00Lawrence,
Re Lawrence Crowell3:58 PM, July 10, 202...Lawrence,<br />Re Lawrence Crowell3:58 PM, July 10, 2020:<br /><br />In a conventional computer, a higher (or lower) voltage can be said to represent “one” or “true” with absolute certainty.<br /><br />I think this is what is happening in quantum computers: In a quantum computer, with its conventional computer interface, a measurement of a “2-state” quantum object or system results in a Lorraine Fordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00175567853773691970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-83759054300559038682020-07-11T17:09:53.568-04:002020-07-11T17:09:53.568-04:00Another candidate: Decoherence of matter waves by ...Another candidate: Decoherence of matter waves by thermal emission of radiation. <br />https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02276<br /><br />They do the equivalent of the double-slit experiment with C70 and show that by heating up the molecule, the contrast of the interference fringes gets reduced then disappears, because the emission of a photon by the molecule could give which-way information.JimVhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10198704789965278981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-24627395311928951382020-07-11T01:12:37.069-04:002020-07-11T01:12:37.069-04:00Andrew,
There's no contradiction in this. In ...Andrew,<br /><br />There's no contradiction in this. In quantum mechanics, you can have decoherence in the box, but not for the box. This is most easily to see if you look at the universe as a whole which can't decohere just because there's nothing to trace out. Sabine Hossenfelderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-84351657645696160602020-07-10T17:10:32.821-04:002020-07-10T17:10:32.821-04:00@PhysicistDave @Andrei Perhaps gravitational effec...@PhysicistDave @Andrei Perhaps gravitational effects are not adequate to decohere SC, if the experiment was done out in deep space with zero curvature. However, I think Andrei is correct that SC experiment is impossible, even in principle, in the actual universe. (Saying it is possible in a different universe where only the cat exists is irrelevant to whether it's possible in our universe!)Andrew F. Knight, J.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12731018050469679896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-21326788023760047382020-07-10T16:57:32.941-04:002020-07-10T16:57:32.941-04:00The Yu and Nicolic paper is incorrect. My paper p...The Yu and Nicolic paper is incorrect. My paper points out the mistake: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.13317.pdf <br /><br />Abstract: The assertion by Yu and Nikolic that the delayed choice quantum eraser experiment of Kim et al. empirically falsifies the consciousness-causes-collapse hypothesis of quantum mechanics is based on the unfounded and false assumption that the failure of a quantum waveAndrew F. Knight, J.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12731018050469679896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-68649275884683591322020-07-10T16:50:11.498-04:002020-07-10T16:50:11.498-04:00This is a brilliant reply. If you are right, then...This is a brilliant reply. If you are right, then SC/WF are not possible even in principle, as they would require the creation of uncertainty "blurriness" in macroscopic objects, which would be impossible. I have looked for papers that discuss the impossibility of SC/WF but can't find any -- can you suggest one? Thanks!Andrew F. Knight, J.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12731018050469679896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-3774126839542470452020-07-10T16:41:11.554-04:002020-07-10T16:41:11.554-04:00Very interesting post! You said "In Schrödin...Very interesting post! You said "In Schrödinger’s thought experiment, the decoherence actually happens already when the toxin is released, so the superposition is never passed on to the cat to begin with." Many (MANY) papers have been published, often by philosophers of physics, that assert that if the box (containing SC) is adequately isolated from the rest of the universe, then the Andrew F. Knight, J.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12731018050469679896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-6206297089804494372020-07-10T15:58:19.056-04:002020-07-10T15:58:19.056-04:00Qubits = quantum states, and to the extent they ex...Qubits = quantum states, and to the extent they exist qubits exist. Maybe better, qubits may be represented by the density matrix ρ = |ψ〉〈ψ|, a Hermitian operator, and are then quantum observables. With ordinary [0, 1] as off and on again I see nothing controversial about saying these physically exist.Lawrence Crowellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12090839464038445335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-58099560362443646062020-07-10T10:29:40.348-04:002020-07-10T10:29:40.348-04:00I just saw the request this morning (July 10), so ...I just saw the request this morning (July 10), so I spent about about 45 minutes on it. Note: all arguments against a consciousness role are predicated upon a real world. Arguments from "world in the head", "Boltzmann Brains", or "last Thursdayism" are orthogonal to that, except for the Occam's Razor heuristic. (Personally I use Mario's Sharp Rock, or the JimVhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10198704789965278981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-81927563418096144162020-07-10T07:58:17.329-04:002020-07-10T07:58:17.329-04:00Lawrence,
Are you, or are you not, willing to fac...Lawrence,<br /><br />Are you, or are you not, willing to face the objective fact that binary digits and qubits don't actually physically exist: they only exist from the point of view of human beings? Lorraine Fordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00175567853773691970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-68222812946580528972020-07-10T05:36:35.089-04:002020-07-10T05:36:35.089-04:00You reject any objective context to mathematics.You reject any objective context to mathematics.Lawrence Crowellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12090839464038445335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-22809952067300534702020-07-10T03:48:01.537-04:002020-07-10T03:48:01.537-04:00Lawrence,
Binary digits are a man-made concept, a...Lawrence,<br /><br />Binary digits are a man-made concept, and transistors, voltages and circuits are used to represent this “binary digit” concept. But there are no genuine physical “binary digits”.<br /><br />“Binary digits” are represented by higher and lower voltages e.g. -4 to +1 volts or -1 to +3 volts: i.e. there is no genuine physical “0” or “1”. In addition to this, a binary digit (e.g.Lorraine Fordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00175567853773691970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-58087220850343534362020-07-10T03:31:40.243-04:002020-07-10T03:31:40.243-04:00I don't think that fine-tuning caused an aster...I don't think that fine-tuning caused an asteroid to kill the dinosaurs. Such a cause seems too capricious to me.martenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02423871089614417690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-17785794746617681552020-07-09T11:50:46.167-04:002020-07-09T11:50:46.167-04:00PhysicistDave wrote: "I do not know whether w...PhysicistDave wrote: "I do not know whether wavefunction collapse occurs and neither do you."<br /><br />I'm inclined to read this as a confession that you don't know what the measurement problem is. My question was not about a physical fact, but your personal belief. You carefully misread my question and refused to answer.<br /><br />> "The difference is that I am Wernerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08502954437062856468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-50083243675655355592020-07-09T11:46:06.089-04:002020-07-09T11:46:06.089-04:00Phillip Helbig6:12 AM, July 09, 2020
"If you...Phillip Helbig6:12 AM, July 09, 2020<br /><br />"If you have discovered fraud, take it to court."<br />Oh, I have discovered fraud. Luke Barnes used his scientific credentials and connections to sneak his crazy Iron Age superstitions into a science book. This is fraudulent and an attempt to corrupt science. It's not actually illegal though. He has made Geraint Lewis and Brian Steven Evanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13898046706669437332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-47034004126625578542020-07-09T07:43:57.299-04:002020-07-09T07:43:57.299-04:00You wrote:
"How computers work has got NOTHI...You wrote:<br /><br />"How computers work has got NOTHING to do with the particle physics of circuits, voltages and transistors. No one is interested in circuits, voltages and transistors per se." <br /><br />I am not sure what to tell you, but it is all about electronics. Contrary to what you say in this post the binary system is on/off = 0/1 and from there these are lexical analyzed Lawrence Crowellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12090839464038445335noreply@blogger.com