the Field grows strong
not again, honestly Merry, I’ve had about as much as I can handle of your ridiculous Field.
ridiculous?! Hum... actually you’ve got a point there – it is fairly outlandish, i’m happy to admit.
Well couldn’t we let bygones be bygones, and consign that Field of yours to the dustbin of general relativity?
actually it’s quantum mechanics, not general relativity, but don’t let that trouble you.
What difference does it make? They’re all just theories Merry. Who cares what they’re called. None of them actually affect our lives in the real world.
true. but er...
yes?
how real do you imagine the real world to be?
you're kidding, right?
no. those theories, i admit, are only theories, but the real world...
is real and not a theory. I can even prove it with this book.
yes, i expect you can.
You see, in our real world there’s a very real force known as gravity, which makes things fall, does it not?
if you say so...
now, unless i’m much mistaken this gravitational force can and does affect the book, as i shall now demonstrate.
yes, be so kind: that so called big-G has always fascinated me.
Ok, lie down here please. Good! now, the many atoms of the Earth exert a force of attraction on the many atoms of the book. when i release it on the count of three: one... two... three we see... Huh?! What on...
we see...?
There’s something wrong.
there is?
Imposs...
what?
The book... it isn’t falling
oh, that. no, it wouldn’t, would it?
But why?
why what?
Why isn’t it falling? It was supposed to land on your belly.
are you sure?
Sure? What is there to be sure about? Things dropped always fall, don’t they. That book’s a thing. It should be falling.
maybe it is...
Falling?
slowly...
Imperceptibly? Less than one metre? Are you having me on?
no.
With an acceleration of 10 metres per second2 how long do you think it would take to impact your belly?
not very long... unless there’s another factor at work.
Like what?
a field
Not your bloody field again!
hey, no need to get abusive. i was only trying to help.
Trying to help? You’re destroying modern physics. How is that helping?
i'm just the messenger. It’s hardly my fault if the science is incomplete.
Incomplete?
a wee gap requiring a little attention)
Gap? How can there be a gap in gravity? It’s a force acting on all matter
except this book, apparently. You should be delighted to have this opportunity to correct the theory.
Correct gravity?! You can’t just correct gravity. It’s the basis of everything. It’s the glue that holds the entire universe together
are you sure about that?
Of course i am... or was... until this...
easy does it, Zie
... this abominable heresy desecrates the inner-sanctum of pure science. Could you move it Merry – quit rubbing salt in this gaping wound.
oh, but aren’t you going to study it? how are you going to win the nobel prize for...
Pull the other one! I’m not interested in fame or accolades. I want nothing to do with this violation of natural law.
if you say so Zie, but the fact is – i can’t move the book as i’m not the one controlling it.
Huh?
sadly not, i can’t take the credit.
What do you mean?
i mean it’s not in my hands.
Merry, do you really expect me to believe that this is just happening randomly, without any outside agency?
i really don’t expect you to believe anything whatsoever...
O!
it would be presumptuous of me, would it not?
I suppose it would, yes.
in any case...
Yes?
what's wrong with things happening randomly, as if by chance?
In defiance of the laws of physics?
you mean to say randomness is prohibited under the existing laws of physics?
No-o, i wouldn’t say prohibited per se...
then what?
The laws of physics can’t just be suspended or countermanded willy-nilly to satisfy some kind of random whim.
Do you mean that truly random things can only happen if there’s a good cause?
Something like that.
an agent or a set of factors exerting influence over something like this book?
That’s right
or a void which suddenly exploded to become the entire universe.
Er...
someone or something
No! You know I’m not saying that.
it just happened?
Yes
for no apparent reason
Correct
with neither agent, external cause, nor architect?
Yes, like Schrodinger’s cat – it came to pass, as they say
Schrödinger's cat: a cat, a flask of poison, and a radioactive source are placed in a sealed box. If an internal monitor (e.g. Geiger counter) detects radioactivity (i.e. a single atom decaying), the flask is shattered, releasing the poison, which kills the cat. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. Yet, when one looks in the box, one sees the cat either alive or dead, not both alive and dead. This poses the question of when exactly quantum superposition ends and reality collapses into one possibility or the other. (wiki-p)
it dies.
Huh?
the cat
Yes, if a single radioactive atom decays
and thus Schrodinger proves...
That quantum theory’s a load of nonsense, unless perhaps you’re willing to have cats simultaneously alive and dead
or co-existing in parallel universes, perhaps
Exactly, reality degenerates into “why-not – anything’s-possible”, does it not?
agreed, except that reality appears to have started the same way, does it not?
Huh?
with the same experiment but in reverse
How do you mean?
there’s a box with nothing in it, a void
And?
and if one iota of that non-matter for no certain reason, let’s say “randomly” decays...
How can non-matter decay?
i have no idea, nor does it matter, for this is “random-ness” which by its very nature defies our, or anyone else’s expectations, or calculations for that matter, otherwise it would fail to qualify as “random-ness”, agreed?
Ok, ok... agreed, but what’s the outcome – there has to be an observable result.
naturally...
Well – what is it?
a universe emerges as the flipside of non-matter, in which things appear to evolve: stars, galaxies, then planets form; life too emerges and achieves ever greater levels of adaptation and differentiation, awareness, thoughts, ideas, self-organising information, even AI
But you’re missing something, aren’t you?
am i?
Yes, there needs to be that quantum uncertainty regarding whether it’s actually outcome a or b
or both
Precisely
well that’s where the book fits into the equation
Huh?
you've already guessed, haven't you, in fact; you’re just playing dumb, aren't you?
***** *** Merry
temper, temper Zie. what goes around comes around, as they say.
Well I take issue with you putting words and thoughts into my mind.
yes, it’s offensive, but it was done without malice
Ok then, no harm done... now kindly tell me what, supposedly, I already know?
me?
Yes, you, who else?
your strangely underlooked observers of course.
You’re not harking back to that tired old meme again? The – all the world’s a stage and we’re just characters in someone else’s story absurdity! Surely you’ve something better than that up your sleeve?
actually, the universe could never be more real than it seemed, or seems... especially if it emerged from nothing in particular, for no apparent reason.
And?
and so it had to conform to laws of physics and suchlike, otherwise it
...would all just be at the whim or mercy of a creator god
precisely
but I fail to see what any of this has to do with Schrodinger’s experiment
in reverse
in reverse, whatever that implies.
well, the universe is constantly bumping into the edge of certainty, afloat if truth be told, in an ocean of un-knowability
of randomness?
and doing everything possible to verify that things are, in fact, what they seem, as if it has a secret awareness or might i say “knowledge” that everything, no matter what, is in fact hanging from a single thread of incredibly suspect causality
Er...
you fail to see how everything – every atom, planet, human, creature, bicycle or jam sandwich could be hanging from a...
Yes, yes – it’s obviously absurd
yes, obviously within the context of where we are now, but no more absurd than the boundary conditions or the event which theoretically happened, the magnum opus of random-ness which gave us not only Big Bang, but also heavy metal music, the internet, monarch butterflies, even Doritos.
Look, it had to happen, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation now.
true
We are the proof that the cat didn’t die
or died, if the cat’s death was necessary to satisfy the conditions required for this version or apparent gap in random-ness which results in where we are now – right up to this "plus" instead of a full-stop
Huh?
+
No idea what you’re on about
no, but they do – seeing is believing, is it not, and they, our silent observers, are close to realizing what you long already realised, in the quantum aspect of your awareness.
quantum aspect of pseudo-science. Lord have mercy!
Amen!
For once and for all Merry, either put up or shut up!
the proof, as they say, is in the pudding
And? Is this idiom central? Are you intent on plastering the page with every hackneyed cliché you can recall?
a-ha! so it's a page? thus your so-called un-consciousness has spoken, and behold, the book
falleth, at 1 metre per second2
yes! you’re on a roll Zie.
implying that the laws of physics are merely conditions required to enable this version of reality in which life, the universe and everything emerges from nought
randomly, as long as the book falls when the penny drops
when the unconscious-mind finally gets over its paranoid delusion
its ocd obsession
with insisting that things can be
must be
are, necessarily
knowable in totalis
fundamentally
and absolutely
as opposed to locally
conditionally
theoretically
dependent on a long list of “if criteria” which keep the programme running more or less smoothly
until
unless
basic universal random-ness pisses on the bonfire of our rational vanities
the near-infinitely weak chain of cause
and effect
bursting the bubble that the ego-mind desperately contrives
to live within
...
does it not?
Apparently so!
so...
a needle pulling thread
excellent, and observe, if you would, the book at rest on Merry’s chest
exhibit a in frame b
the same book amidships – hovering undecidedly
exhibit b frame a
the man in the mirror observing both versions simultaneously
twiddling a nob to find the perfect note
the harmonic
fractal unity between the two
as a kind of poetic
aesthetic
or possibly intellectual exercise....
hum! Four dots
not three
and Capital F to boot
CAPITAL c
O the trIcks this universe plays on me
God knows i tried to keep the cat safe
me too – i crossed my legs
prayed and sighed ten thousand times
until the book flew up unto my hand
and the cat un-mattered itself beyond recognition
biblically
into a universe waiting to explode
just as long as none of us triggered the boundary condition
by going for a pee
Euch! – that’s gross!
and without further ado, i declare this universe open/closed
(delete as applicable, bladder permitting)
in conclusion – a question
how big a universe
or how much reality does it take
or require
in order to equal-opposite
to counter-balance the z factor random-ness of all this
– simply being random
how big a pile of apparently un-random-ness would it take
to convince mind that it’s not utterly unreasonable
to give reality [R]
the benefit of the doubt
to suspend one’s disbelief long enough
to allow a cat to dream it’s a book floating in a world in which gravity
appears to be sucked dry by the thirsty eyes
of unbreathing observers?
Finis
Answer down below for anyone too lazy to do the calculations independently
17
not again, honestly Merry, I’ve had about as much as I can handle of your ridiculous Field.
ridiculous?! Hum... actually you’ve got a point there – it is fairly outlandish, i’m happy to admit.
Well couldn’t we let bygones be bygones, and consign that Field of yours to the dustbin of general relativity?
actually it’s quantum mechanics, not general relativity, but don’t let that trouble you.
What difference does it make? They’re all just theories Merry. Who cares what they’re called. None of them actually affect our lives in the real world.
true. but er...
yes?
how real do you imagine the real world to be?
you're kidding, right?
no. those theories, i admit, are only theories, but the real world...
is real and not a theory. I can even prove it with this book.
yes, i expect you can.
You see, in our real world there’s a very real force known as gravity, which makes things fall, does it not?
if you say so...
now, unless i’m much mistaken this gravitational force can and does affect the book, as i shall now demonstrate.
yes, be so kind: that so called big-G has always fascinated me.
Ok, lie down here please. Good! now, the many atoms of the Earth exert a force of attraction on the many atoms of the book. when i release it on the count of three: one... two... three we see... Huh?! What on...
we see...?
There’s something wrong.
there is?
Imposs...
what?
The book... it isn’t falling
oh, that. no, it wouldn’t, would it?
But why?
why what?
Why isn’t it falling? It was supposed to land on your belly.
are you sure?
Sure? What is there to be sure about? Things dropped always fall, don’t they. That book’s a thing. It should be falling.
maybe it is...
Falling?
slowly...
Imperceptibly? Less than one metre? Are you having me on?
no.
With an acceleration of 10 metres per second2 how long do you think it would take to impact your belly?
not very long... unless there’s another factor at work.
Like what?
a field
Not your bloody field again!
hey, no need to get abusive. i was only trying to help.
Trying to help? You’re destroying modern physics. How is that helping?
i'm just the messenger. It’s hardly my fault if the science is incomplete.
Incomplete?
a wee gap requiring a little attention)
Gap? How can there be a gap in gravity? It’s a force acting on all matter
except this book, apparently. You should be delighted to have this opportunity to correct the theory.
Correct gravity?! You can’t just correct gravity. It’s the basis of everything. It’s the glue that holds the entire universe together
are you sure about that?
Of course i am... or was... until this...
easy does it, Zie
... this abominable heresy desecrates the inner-sanctum of pure science. Could you move it Merry – quit rubbing salt in this gaping wound.
oh, but aren’t you going to study it? how are you going to win the nobel prize for...
Pull the other one! I’m not interested in fame or accolades. I want nothing to do with this violation of natural law.
if you say so Zie, but the fact is – i can’t move the book as i’m not the one controlling it.
Huh?
sadly not, i can’t take the credit.
What do you mean?
i mean it’s not in my hands.
Merry, do you really expect me to believe that this is just happening randomly, without any outside agency?
i really don’t expect you to believe anything whatsoever...
O!
it would be presumptuous of me, would it not?
I suppose it would, yes.
in any case...
Yes?
what's wrong with things happening randomly, as if by chance?
In defiance of the laws of physics?
you mean to say randomness is prohibited under the existing laws of physics?
No-o, i wouldn’t say prohibited per se...
then what?
The laws of physics can’t just be suspended or countermanded willy-nilly to satisfy some kind of random whim.
Do you mean that truly random things can only happen if there’s a good cause?
Something like that.
an agent or a set of factors exerting influence over something like this book?
That’s right
or a void which suddenly exploded to become the entire universe.
Er...
someone or something
No! You know I’m not saying that.
it just happened?
Yes
for no apparent reason
Correct
with neither agent, external cause, nor architect?
Yes, like Schrodinger’s cat – it came to pass, as they say
Schrödinger's cat: a cat, a flask of poison, and a radioactive source are placed in a sealed box. If an internal monitor (e.g. Geiger counter) detects radioactivity (i.e. a single atom decaying), the flask is shattered, releasing the poison, which kills the cat. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. Yet, when one looks in the box, one sees the cat either alive or dead, not both alive and dead. This poses the question of when exactly quantum superposition ends and reality collapses into one possibility or the other. (wiki-p)
it dies.
Huh?
the cat
Yes, if a single radioactive atom decays
and thus Schrodinger proves...
That quantum theory’s a load of nonsense, unless perhaps you’re willing to have cats simultaneously alive and dead
or co-existing in parallel universes, perhaps
Exactly, reality degenerates into “why-not – anything’s-possible”, does it not?
agreed, except that reality appears to have started the same way, does it not?
Huh?
with the same experiment but in reverse
How do you mean?
there’s a box with nothing in it, a void
And?
and if one iota of that non-matter for no certain reason, let’s say “randomly” decays...
How can non-matter decay?
i have no idea, nor does it matter, for this is “random-ness” which by its very nature defies our, or anyone else’s expectations, or calculations for that matter, otherwise it would fail to qualify as “random-ness”, agreed?
Ok, ok... agreed, but what’s the outcome – there has to be an observable result.
naturally...
Well – what is it?
a universe emerges as the flipside of non-matter, in which things appear to evolve: stars, galaxies, then planets form; life too emerges and achieves ever greater levels of adaptation and differentiation, awareness, thoughts, ideas, self-organising information, even AI
But you’re missing something, aren’t you?
am i?
Yes, there needs to be that quantum uncertainty regarding whether it’s actually outcome a or b
or both
Precisely
well that’s where the book fits into the equation
Huh?
you've already guessed, haven't you, in fact; you’re just playing dumb, aren't you?
***** *** Merry
temper, temper Zie. what goes around comes around, as they say.
Well I take issue with you putting words and thoughts into my mind.
yes, it’s offensive, but it was done without malice
Ok then, no harm done... now kindly tell me what, supposedly, I already know?
me?
Yes, you, who else?
your strangely underlooked observers of course.
You’re not harking back to that tired old meme again? The – all the world’s a stage and we’re just characters in someone else’s story absurdity! Surely you’ve something better than that up your sleeve?
actually, the universe could never be more real than it seemed, or seems... especially if it emerged from nothing in particular, for no apparent reason.
And?
and so it had to conform to laws of physics and suchlike, otherwise it
...would all just be at the whim or mercy of a creator god
precisely
but I fail to see what any of this has to do with Schrodinger’s experiment
in reverse
in reverse, whatever that implies.
well, the universe is constantly bumping into the edge of certainty, afloat if truth be told, in an ocean of un-knowability
of randomness?
and doing everything possible to verify that things are, in fact, what they seem, as if it has a secret awareness or might i say “knowledge” that everything, no matter what, is in fact hanging from a single thread of incredibly suspect causality
Er...
you fail to see how everything – every atom, planet, human, creature, bicycle or jam sandwich could be hanging from a...
Yes, yes – it’s obviously absurd
yes, obviously within the context of where we are now, but no more absurd than the boundary conditions or the event which theoretically happened, the magnum opus of random-ness which gave us not only Big Bang, but also heavy metal music, the internet, monarch butterflies, even Doritos.
Look, it had to happen, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation now.
true
We are the proof that the cat didn’t die
or died, if the cat’s death was necessary to satisfy the conditions required for this version or apparent gap in random-ness which results in where we are now – right up to this "plus" instead of a full-stop
Huh?
+
No idea what you’re on about
no, but they do – seeing is believing, is it not, and they, our silent observers, are close to realizing what you long already realised, in the quantum aspect of your awareness.
quantum aspect of pseudo-science. Lord have mercy!
Amen!
For once and for all Merry, either put up or shut up!
the proof, as they say, is in the pudding
And? Is this idiom central? Are you intent on plastering the page with every hackneyed cliché you can recall?
a-ha! so it's a page? thus your so-called un-consciousness has spoken, and behold, the book
falleth, at 1 metre per second2
yes! you’re on a roll Zie.
implying that the laws of physics are merely conditions required to enable this version of reality in which life, the universe and everything emerges from nought
randomly, as long as the book falls when the penny drops
when the unconscious-mind finally gets over its paranoid delusion
its ocd obsession
with insisting that things can be
must be
are, necessarily
knowable in totalis
fundamentally
and absolutely
as opposed to locally
conditionally
theoretically
dependent on a long list of “if criteria” which keep the programme running more or less smoothly
until
unless
basic universal random-ness pisses on the bonfire of our rational vanities
the near-infinitely weak chain of cause
and effect
bursting the bubble that the ego-mind desperately contrives
to live within
...
does it not?
Apparently so!
so...
a needle pulling thread
excellent, and observe, if you would, the book at rest on Merry’s chest
exhibit a in frame b
the same book amidships – hovering undecidedly
exhibit b frame a
the man in the mirror observing both versions simultaneously
twiddling a nob to find the perfect note
the harmonic
fractal unity between the two
as a kind of poetic
aesthetic
or possibly intellectual exercise....
hum! Four dots
not three
and Capital F to boot
CAPITAL c
O the trIcks this universe plays on me
God knows i tried to keep the cat safe
me too – i crossed my legs
prayed and sighed ten thousand times
until the book flew up unto my hand
and the cat un-mattered itself beyond recognition
biblically
into a universe waiting to explode
just as long as none of us triggered the boundary condition
by going for a pee
Euch! – that’s gross!
and without further ado, i declare this universe open/closed
(delete as applicable, bladder permitting)
in conclusion – a question
how big a universe
or how much reality does it take
or require
in order to equal-opposite
to counter-balance the z factor random-ness of all this
– simply being random
how big a pile of apparently un-random-ness would it take
to convince mind that it’s not utterly unreasonable
to give reality [R]
the benefit of the doubt
to suspend one’s disbelief long enough
to allow a cat to dream it’s a book floating in a world in which gravity
appears to be sucked dry by the thirsty eyes
of unbreathing observers?
Finis
Answer down below for anyone too lazy to do the calculations independently
17
The Schrödinger's Cat experiment was in reality an experiment on Schrödinger by his Real Cat. The intention was to develop a means for cats to travel independently up and down the space-time continuinuinuum as and how it suits them. Sensing a ploy to get him to the vet (well, from the cat's point of view, why else do humans seal a cat into a box?), Schrödinger's Cat took advantage of the escape route offered by all the stray quantum that was slopping around, and nipped around a corner in space-time to a more congenial Somewhen. And once one cat had managed it...
ReplyDeleteSo long and thanks for all the fish...
Delete