Thursday, June 4, 2015

Let's hear it for sentient measurers


The following post was prompted by the gizmag.com article linked below.

Researchers at the Australian National University's School of Physics and Engineering did a variation of the John Wheeler delayed choice experiment; using the more difficult option of atoms, instead of photons.

A diffusion like grating of counter directed lasers first worked to set a single, super cooled helium atom in one of two possible directions. A second set of lasers would either do noting, in expectation of a single atom path, or set up a recombining constructive or destructive wave interference, in expectation of an atom traveling on both paths; with the determination of which option was selected being done by a random number.

The kicker here, of course, is that the measurement was done before the random number was generated and the second set of lasers had done what needed to be done for the atom to be a wave or a singular particle. That measurement merely pre-confirmed what the second lasers were going to do to accommodate the established the atom wave/particle state.

If that's not a mind bender I don't know what is. Be that as it may, however, it does serve to suggest that sentient meaning processors have a pivotal part to play in what constitutes any given reality.

A recent experiment  by researchers at ANU into the quantum behavior of particles seems to suggest that reality appears not to exist until it is actually measured

Experiment suggests that reality doesn't exist until it is measured 

No comments:

Post a Comment