I gave a talk at Google the other day entitled, with tongue-in-cheek, The Quantum Conspiracy: What Popularizers of Quantum Mechanics Don't Want You to Know. It's basically a recap of this paper that I wrote ten years ago. Despite my efforts to enlighten the world, you will still read in the popular press nonsense like, "When an aspect of one [entangled] photon’s quantum state is measured, the other photon changes in response, even when the two photons are separated by large distance."
No, nothing changes when you "measure" an entangled photon. Watch the talk (or read the paper) to find out why. Physicists have known this for decades now. Why does the popular press have such a hard time getting it right?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
And often they add, "...and it changes instantly, faster even than light!"
Oh yes, and the whole "the universe doesn't even seem to exist, until a conscious being observes it!"
Oh well. It's fun for new-age crystal/chi/astrology wackos to think that real physics supports their delusions.
> the universe doesn't even SEEM to exist, until a conscious being observes it [emphasis added]
That is actually more or less true :-)
Yeah, yeah, all right. But don't confuse people. You're now making a statement about human minds, not about the external world (which is what most people mean).
Just watched your video. Nice job! I especially like the physical props at the beginning. Those were cool. I expected just powerpoint; much better to have macroscopic physical examples.
(I myself prefer Multiple Worlds, but in the context of the confusions you're arguing against, we're basically on the same side.)
Post a Comment