[Dean's World] Dave Price: Did We End The Universe Prematurely By Observing It?

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dave Price:
Did We End The Universe Prematurely By Observing It?
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1196286282.shtml


   Short answer: no, [1]this is just technobabble.
   Less short answer: outside of sci-fi, quantum "observations" have
   nothing to do with whether a human brain perceives them, and humans
   are very unlikely to have produced any kind of particle/force
   interaction so novel to the universe that it creates a species of
   quantum wavefunction collapse that hasn't happened trillions of times
   before.
   There's about a million fictional allusions to this idea, perhaps best
   exemplified by a line from an Aeon Flux episode: "Light, in the
   absence of eyes, illuminates nothing." It's fun idea and a great plot
   device, but unserious.
   Here's the [2]classic "quantum observation" experiment. Note that the
   results have nothing to do with whether a human happens to be standing
   there watching it.

References

   1. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/ns-hws112107.php
   2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment