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KimLuster on Aug. 21, 2016
The ‘Observer Effect’ (google it if you're interested - fascinating stuff, with profound implications). The basics is that a photon (or electron, or any other sub-atomic particle) behaves as a wave (think wave of water) UNLESS a conscious observation ‘causes’ it to behave as a particle (think tiny billiard ball). This is most easily seen with the double-slit experiment. If you direct a photon at a panel with two slits in it, it will form an interference pattern (which you would expect if it were a wave), but if you try to record which of the slits the photon is traveling through, the very act of trying to find that out causes the photon to ‘collapse’ to a tiny point, and the interference pattern disappears…
The implications are profound (and a little disturbing). How does a conscious observer have such an effect on reality? What is a conscious observer (you, I, a cat, an AI)? Most scientists these days believe that consciousness is ultimately based on physical reality (you don't have a soul or mind separate from your brain, which is made of matter, and ultimately sub-atomic particles). A dilemma is posed - how does physical reality (your ‘consciousness’) affect physical reality from a distance without physically interacting with it (cause a photon to collapse)…?
As the ‘Godstrain Manifestation’ says, it's seems an illogical loop (there's our circle motif). ‘She’ proposes that, in its timeless existence, a photon actually did it all, behaved as both a particle and as a wave (and many other things besides), Being ‘timeless’, it had all the time in the world to do it…!! Our ‘collapse-causing observation’, in one particular moment in time, is really only noticing one out of the infinite paths the photon took… El Cid sorta hit on thoughts in that same neighborhood a few pages back!
Taking all this to its logical conclusion, it seems the universe really is a ‘determined’ universe. Everything, from the photon's point-of-view, including future events, have already happened; reality, past, present, future, is just one single ‘thing’. And if that includes our future decisions and choices, then… well, we don't really have consciousness and freewill… That implications makes some of us scream with frustration and angry denial into the void!
But if it is true, that has implications of its own, as Kimber Lee has just latched on to…
I've also noticed the Godstrain Manifestation's nipples have gotten more detailed… Hrmmmm
Note and Disclaimer: many scientists will point out (rightly so) that it isn’t some sort mental power that’s causing wave collapsing, but rather, it is the actual measuring instruments (which are large and cumbersome on the quantum level). I’m not arguing otherwise… I just know that, by whatever method we ‘observers’ use to glean information about the quantum world, it changes it… And I don’t fully get how an Instrument can affect an entangled particle’s pair on the other side of the room (or the other side of the universe)… Efforts to explain that in a totally materialistic way always sound sort of ‘airy’ to me, almost hopeful in their attempt to remove consciousness from the equation… Anyhow…
Thanks for Reading Everyone!
KimLuster at 7:41PM, Aug. 23, 2016
@Ghosty: Apparently, they've figure out how to put an object visible to the nake eye in a quantum state!! Sometimes reality puts fantasy to shame!! http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100317/full/news.2010.130.html
ghostrunner at 10:50AM, Aug. 23, 2016
https://theobservereffect.wordpress.com/the-most-beautiful-experiment/
ghostrunner at 10:48AM, Aug. 23, 2016
it also works on carbon atoms, which violates several laws of matter and energy conservation
KimLuster at 4:39AM, Aug. 23, 2016
@Jeremy: Sometimes it seems to have the hallmarks of one to me...!
KimLuster at 4:38AM, Aug. 23, 2016
@Z74: I suspect you're right!!
Jeremy Ray at 1:07AM, Aug. 23, 2016
It makes sense if the universe is a simulation.
Z74 at 8:24PM, Aug. 22, 2016
For every answer found we generate more questions and we'll never figure it all out - that's the nature of the universe 😉
KimLuster at 7:38PM, Aug. 22, 2016
(cont…)It doesn’t seem to matter when or by what method an observance occurs, it matters only that information is attained… Weird, weird, weird…! here’s a short blurb about it http://secondnexus.com/technology-and-innovation/physicists-demonstrate-how-time-can-seem-to-run-backward-and-the-future-can-affect-the-past/ And just because I enjoy this stuff (hides nerd tag), I’ll say I'm not sure I agree about a wave function as just a mathematical construct... See, in the double-slit experiment, you can reduce the beam frequency so low that ONLY ONE particle is emitted at a time, and if it is not recorded (ie, observed), it will STILL produce an interference pattern!! The single particle’s probability wave will interfere with itself…somehow! That’s a tangible effect – more than just mathematics…! But I hear you! I strongly dislike any explanation that smacks of a ‘new agey’ feel. I suspect, when we do discover what’s ‘really’ going on, it’ll be an 'ah' moment!!
KimLuster at 7:38PM, Aug. 22, 2016
@El Cid: Thanks!! I agree that what’s going on is probably pretty simple... We just have to come up with a scientific equation that includes the observer - we will always be part of the system (simple, right?)... Somehow, information itself seems to plays a part… The lifeless recording devices do record, but it may be that the ‘collapse’ can’t be said to have occurred until a conscious observer later comes along and observes the data – only then does the information come to be… It sounds almost mystical, but the ‘time of observance’ doesn’t seem to matter with quantum mechanics… I’ve read of experiments using entangled particles, where one ‘half’ was allowed to travel much further than the other (ie. It took longer in time to reach a recording device), and it was observed (thus collapsing its wave function), a corresponding collapse occurred with the other, even though it travelled a shorter distance (ie had already done its thing in the past)…
El Cid at 6:45PM, Aug. 22, 2016
The Observer Effect is really strange from a "common sense" perspective, though I'm doubtful that it's some kind of psychic or consciousness phenomenon, since it doesn't require a conscious observer; you get the same effect with a lifeless recording device whether you're looking or not. And from what I understand it's not the actual photon which collapses; it's the wave function -- an artificial mathematical probability construct -- which is said to collapse once resolved by observation. The corporeal photon just does what it was always going to do, or so it seems. I think we just don't have very good theories right now.
El Cid at 6:37PM, Aug. 22, 2016
Oh wow, this page just makes me go cross-eyed! Great stuff! It seems pretty much any attempt at a logical Theory of Everything eventually craters out into circular logic or some other dead end. I tend to be of the opinion that the truth of it all is rather mundane, but there's something fundamentally flawed in our approach -- that, or we're just incapable of collecting all the necessary data due to our limited abilities of cognition and perspective.
KimLuster at 10:46AM, Aug. 22, 2016
@tupayaon: and there's a snake at the bottom... eating its tail!!
KimLuster at 10:46AM, Aug. 22, 2016
@Peipei: I think if you really did know, you'd be the first... ;) I don't trust anyone that says they know...!! Always be open!! Thanks!!
KimLuster at 10:44AM, Aug. 22, 2016
@Barry: Yup, and we even had the circle of stone to go with it!!
tupapayon at 8:22AM, Aug. 22, 2016
The rabbit hole goes even deeper...
Peipei at 5:59AM, Aug. 22, 2016
More very interesting questions to be observed...I have always been of the impression that if there is an all powerful creator behind everything, it doesn't portray the hallmark idea of what we think 'God' might be. But i'll be the first to admit that I really don't know, i'm just open to new concepts and ideas xD! Great page as always Kim :3!
BarryCorbett at 5:54AM, Aug. 22, 2016
Ah, it's the old, "Why does God need a starship" revelation. Can't wait for the conclusion!
KimLuster at 4:54AM, Aug. 22, 2016
@Aubrey: Hey, thank you for joining in!! I started this story not just to improve in art, but also to explore some of my own hair-brained ideas!! As for understanding Quantum Mechanics - I think my grasp is really just enough make a sci-fi webcomic!! While I can think about the philosophical implications, the math totally escapes me...!! But I'm comforted by a quote attributed to Richard Feynman: "If you think you understand quantum theory... you don't understand quantum theory."
KimLuster at 4:48AM, Aug. 22, 2016
@plymayer: wait'll next page...!!
KimLuster at 4:47AM, Aug. 22, 2016
@jgib99: Haha, That, or the Author needs an editor...!! Thanks!
Aubrey481 at 11:14PM, Aug. 21, 2016
I've just started reading The Godstrain and I'm really enjoying catching up on the story! Your grasp of quantum physics is impressive! I thought I knew more than the average person on the subject, but I've found myself looking things up on nearly every page. Again, amazing story thus far.. it really makes you think about what could be possible if we understood more.
plymayer at 10:34PM, Aug. 21, 2016
She is not being told the WHOLE truth.
jgib99 at 9:40PM, Aug. 21, 2016
Golly gee willickers, The Godstrain is long-winded!! Another great page that has once again managed to put a few new wrinkles on my brain.
KimLuster at 5:27PM, Aug. 21, 2016
@Banes: Both are points well worth exploring... *Eeek, I better watch myself...*
KimLuster at 5:26PM, Aug. 21, 2016
@whirly: Perhaps things aren't going fully as planned ;)