Schrodinger's Cat. What say you?

[Belacqua]

you and I in a parallel universe you and I are lovers?

You're already in a mild sadomasochistic relationship with him. 

He comes to this site to scold you, and you come here to get scolded. It happens nearly every day.

It isn't sexual, but it's still creepy.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

you and I in a parallel universe you and I are lovers?

You're already in a mild sadomasochistic relationship with him. 

He comes to this site to scold you, and you come here to get scolded. It happens nearly every day.

It isn't sexual, but it's still creepy.

You mistake my motivation for coming here. And Brian’s, I think.

I come here for a variety of reasons, scolding Brian is just lagniappe.

Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

Riiight, so, coming back round to schrodingers cat. Yes, it's an observer - and yes, a barrel of explosives would also be an observer (both of them are billions and billions of observers, in point of fact). Anything that interacts with our x is said to have observed it. That word is used a particular way in qm - it doesn't necessitate or indicate a human being or a cat watching.

That is the misconception that the entire qm woo market is based on, though. The whole business is a bit moot, since neither cats nor explosives nor any other macroscopic object is going to act like the particles that the analogy is meant to explain. It would be absurd if a cat acted that way, which is probably why einstein thought as much, even though it's not absurd for particles to act that way.

[Duty]

So the interior of the safe is an observer? In that case, the interior of the atom smashing machine would be an observer and there would be no spookiness, no?


ETA: actually, no, I'm not going to attempt to resolve this stuff, again - I haven't got so much as a bsc in quantum mechanics and, as Richard Feynman says: "If you think you understand quantum mechanics , you don't understand quantum mechanics."

[onlinebiker]

A lesser known theoretical experiment is Schrodinger's Dog.

In this experiment Schrodinger let loose some particularly noxious flatuence at the dinner table and attempts to blame it on the dog. The dog can be thought of as smelly or not smelly depending on how many times Schroedinger has tried employing this tactic...

[The Grand Nudger]

So the interior of the safe is an observer? In that case, the interior of the atom smashing machine would be an observer and there would be no spookiness, no?


ETA: actually, no, I'm not going to attempt to resolve this stuff, again - I haven't got so much as a bsc in quantum mechanics and, as Richard Feynman says: "If you think you understand quantum mechanics , you don't understand quantum mechanics."

Yes.  Absolutely anything that interacts with the subject/object in any way is an observer. The breeze blowing across your face is observing™ your cheek. The "spooky action" being referenced doesn't go away, it's just not what people think it is - again, the common perception is based on the everyday use of the term observer..which, like so much in scientific descriptions, doesn't actually capture what is being communicated with the employment of the term.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yes.  Absolutely anything that interacts with the subject/object in any way is an observer.  The breeze blowing across your face is observing™ your cheek.  The "spooky action" being referenced doesn't go away, it's just not what people think it is - again, the common perception is based on the everyday use of the term observer..which, like so much in scientific descriptions, doesn't actually capture what is being communicated with the employment of the term.

ob·serv·er
Learn to pronounce
noun
a person who watches or notices something.
"to a casual observer, he was at peace"
Opposite:
participant
a person who follows events, especially political ones, closely and comments publicly on them.
"some observers expect interest rates to rise"
a person posted to an area in an official capacity to monitor political or military events.
"elections scrutinized by international observers"

[tackattack]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_(physics)

[The Grand Nudger]

Yes, Sama, exactly that. People think that the observer is a person (or person like thing) watching. That this watching, by a person like observer, has an effect.

A scale has observed the weight of a thing. A breeze has observed the resistance of our skin and our skin has observed the speed of the breeze and the weight of a thing has observed the strength of the spring in the scale. One single particle, interacting with another single particle, has each observed the other. So on and so forth.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

English is a bad idea.