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Changing things at a quantum level by observing them makes sense if you’re given the right examples. You have to read the whole article to appreciate how insane the idea of doing so at a macro level sounds. Heisenberg would be turning over in his grave if there were someone there to watch him.
Mankind ‘shortening the universe’s life’
Forget about the threat that mankind poses to the Earth: our activities may be shortening the life of the universe too.
The startling claim is made by a pair of American cosmologists investigating the consequences for the cosmos of quantum theory, the most successful theory we have. Over the past few years, cosmologists have taken this powerful theory of what happens at the level of subatomic particles and tried to extend it to understand the universe, since it began in the subatomic realm during the Big Bang.
But there is an odd feature of the theory that philosophers and scientists still argue about. In a nutshell, the theory suggests that we change things simply by looking at them and theorists have puzzled over the implications for years.
Found by Don
Sorry, but I’m calling bullshit on this.
Quantum mechanics (especially the observation effect mentioned in the article) acts at a micro level, mostly. I doubt that, for instance, turning on a laser to burn a hole in something is going to have the large scale effect on the Universe that the author of the article implies. Heck, every time we breathe or eat, we connect and disconnect atoms in the world. That hasn’t caused the Universe to come apart just yet.
Specifically, dark energy is just another form of energy that we know little about, and observing its effects isn’t likely to bring us more quickly to the End of the Universe.
Now, where is that reservation for two at Milliways?
Having only recently turned the scientific community on its ear by successfully refuting Evolution by Natural Selection in another DU topic, let me take a stab at dismantling Quantum Mechanics.
I would ask whether it might be enough for a baby to make these observations to cause the Universe to split. If not, what about a grad student without a complete understanding of QM? How about if the student is carefully questioned by scientists years after someone else’s proper observation? If not, what about a robot that makes a photograph that a QM physicist must interpret correctly? What if numerous QM scientists make these observations secretly, independently, at slightly different times, does the Universe split a number of times? (Or is it the first observation that counts?)
Before the universe actually splits, does it need to confirm that it has successfully been correctly observed billions of light years away?
How many times in theory might the universe be capable of splitting – including the easy creation of a whole new set of boundless energy and matter?
Might our calculations of an unexpectedly short universe be evidence that extraterrestrial beings are out there observing the universe?
It’s brain-hurting questions like these that suggest to me that Quantum Mechanics describes a close approximation of the universe, but is ultimately wrong. And that something like E8 is more correct without the need for parallel universes. But that’s just me.
RBG
And as always leave it to the humans helplessly wandering in a dark room to come up with theories that make what is in the bible seem almost logical!
More and more I am seeing immigrants from Dumbassia appear.
Cursor_
But wait!!! There’s more!!!
Just think all the other sentient life in the universe is out there, observing … changing the universe with every look….
Now smile!!! The end of life, the universe, and everything, it prolly will happen when someone finds the universe sized negative forty-two.
The MORE we look at something, the deeper the understanding, the more we know, the EASIER it is to destroy.
At some point there is this CHAIN affect, as in a stitching in your pants.
some ODD BALL, will want to see “WHAT HAPPENS IF”, and will hit the Nail on the head, and it MAY cause a catastrophic break down.
Lets say you find the force thats needed to Un-cement the Bonds of Atoms. And then find that you can Stop it.
We wont go out with a BANG, but a Poof.. And then HOW far will this go..We wont be here to find out.
the other end looks like this..
We scour the skies and finally find OTHER intelligence, and true to our nightmares/movies/horror stories, they WISH to “SERVE MAN”(look up twilight zone), and we Become the Main dish on an everlasting meal.
#5: That would be -42i, an imaginary number of course. Put that in you Improbability Drive and then try to make a decent cup of tea!
>>Having only recently turned the scientific
>>community on its ear by successfully refuting
>>Evolution by Natural Selection
Heh heh. Delusions of grandeur.
9 MM. You understand that the moment you observed that I was delusional, the universe split into an option where I continued to be delusional and another where I was not. It is the non-delusional RBG that presents you with the finger.
RBG
Quit lookin’ at me!!!
The shear ignorance displayed in this press announcement is astounding.
These idiots should be selling insurance.
Our chemistry Prof was just talking about existence in the universe a few days ago. And to put it in laymen terms, it comes down to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, which states that anything and everything must contribute to the entropy or the disorder of the universe. The only reason ‘we’ or anything else exists in this weird place known as the universe is because we are contributing to the disorder of the universe. And yes this article is another classic example of pseudo-science mumbo jumbo.
AND no matter what we do, OUR time will end, and the planet will continue with a NEW generation of mutants, that MAY get further then WE HAVE into space, and development…
A bigger problem is these high-energy physics experiments. They are producing a Linear Collider on top of the existing Hadron collider to smash particles together and try to create conditions of the Big Bang. On top of it, they hope to fail, because success could destroy the universe!
All courtesy of the taxpayers at billions of dollars.
A bargain since the Iraq War spends 1000 times as much to destroy only a small part of the planet which is a small part of the solar system which is a small part of the galaxy which is a small part of the universe.
So they are saving us 99.9999999999%!
#16. Oh MikeN, always promoting that big hole in the ground project in Texas, that got cancalled. Not the rats can gnawl thru its wiring in peace.
The effect of us observing the universe, is probably negligible compared to the earth itself blocking the light from passing onto the outer rim of the galaxy and beyond. Nobody’s complaining about the Galactic Center sucking up all the stars and sh*t, or blocking us from seeing the other side of the Milky Way, behind it. But dare swallow a couple of precious nano-footcandles of light with a telescope, and bitch-brigade goes into action.
Yes, they theoritically could be some tiny effect from observing stars and such. But it isn’t going to be felt on earth. So why the hell should we care?! We didn’t when we were testing all those A-Bombs and H-bombs. For all we know, the supposed Climate Change thing was caused by decades of nuclear testing (not car exhausts). Or from all the rocket launches, and travel jets. But these DoD and DoT high ticket items seemed to have gotten a “whitewash” job in the press. Not allowing even a hint of doubt to touch them. But beat up on the little guy? Sure!