Timeline for Does processing for a quantum computer take place in other universes?
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5 events
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| Jun 25, 2014 at 16:58 | comment | added | Gummy bears | Assume the cat is an inanimate object then. You really can't observe an electron that easily, can you? That is not the issue at hand, we are not discussing the workings of quantum mechanics, much of which continues to be theoretical. It helps to demonstrate a point which is necessary to help understand the question, and this example is the most obvious and plainest to see. Of course you cannot apply qm to macroscopic objects, however, it is difficult to understand it without such an example. I believe that it is more important to answer the issue at hand, rather than worry about workings of qm | |
| Jun 25, 2014 at 16:55 | comment | added | Nephente | In my opinion it rather demonstrates the pitfalls when trying to naivly apply qm to macroscopic objects. Especially the layman is left with the impression, that the randomness inherent to QM is directly applicable to the macroscopic world. Worse, it leads to the believe that somehow the human observer plays a distinct role in the workings of nature. That reality depends on the act of a concious being conducting an observation. I guess the physicist should take it as an example that 'measurement' is ultimatly not well defined, although it is a useful concept. | |
| Jun 25, 2014 at 15:37 | comment | added | Gummy bears | Well yes... But it's an example easy to understand and helps explain the basis of the theory? Does it not? @nephente | |
| Jun 25, 2014 at 7:04 | comment | added | Nephente | "...predicts that a cat can be both dead and alive at the same times." To my knowledge, Schrödinger's cat was suggested as an apparent paradox, illustrating the shortcomings of the Kopenhagen-interpretation of QM, especially when applied to macroscopic objects. The notion of 'observation/measurement' is really not well defined. Isn't the cat an observer itself? A way out could be quantum decoherence, by which the superposition is lost during time evolution due to interaction with a suitably large environment. | |
| Jun 25, 2014 at 6:03 | history | answered | Gummy bears | CC BY-SA 3.0 |