#97574
03/04/2003 2:18 AM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
The particular implication of quantum theory that all the fuss is about is of course, as Lockwood puts it, “the simultaneous existence of distinct … experiences” (of a single person). For instance, as I write this, I am having the experience of drinking tea. Quantum theory implies that vast numbers of other experiences of mine, including the experience of drinking coffee at this moment, are also taking place. The reason why I do not have an experience of having all those experiences simultaneously is that the laws of quantum mechanics restrict the operation of our brains so as to confine, as Lockwood puts it, “the gaze of consciousness to a kind of ‘tunnel vision’ directed downwards in the experiential manifold. We cannot look ‘sideways’ through the manifold, any more than we can look ‘upwards’, into the future.” http://www.qubit.org/people/david/Articles/CommentOnLockwood.html
|
|
|
#97575
03/04/2003 2:34 AM
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
there's a lot of stuff on-line, isn't there?
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
#97576
03/04/2003 11:04 AM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
a lot of stuff on-line
The world is full of a great number of things.
|
|
|
#97577
03/04/2003 12:16 PM
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
In reply to:
a kind of ‘tunnel vision’ directed downwards in the experiential manifold.
Try listening to the six distinct vocal lines in the sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor--try to hear each separate line of lyric at the same time. Now the music we can hear vertically--and horizontally. But digesting at the same instant the six separate lines of lyrics? Pretty tough stuff there.
|
|
|
#97578
03/04/2003 1:29 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
ry listening to the six distinct vocal lines in the sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor
Eewww!!! You must hate us, Dub' Dub. At least you could have suggested Fugue for Tinhorns from Guys and Dolls.
|
|
|
#97579
03/04/2003 2:23 PM
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Yeah! Or the final a cappela counterpoint in the Doobie Bros' Black Water.
|
|
|
#97580
03/04/2003 2:28 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Yeah, something you can listen to, much less understand a single line all by its lonesome.
|
|
|
#97581
03/04/2003 3:09 PM
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
I'm not a big fan of opera--or even a little fan of opera--but I love the sextet from Lucia.
|
|
|
#97582
03/04/2003 3:48 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I think it was Robert Haven Schauffler whol said that when music was ;married to imoortal verse,
she made a horrible mésalliance. And a sextet sounds strenuous.
|
|
|
#97583
03/05/2003 5:23 PM
|
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Quantum theory implies that vast numbers of other experiences of mine, including the experience of drinking coffee at this moment, are also taking place.
I am a dummy about quantum theory so although I was interested I hesitated to respond to the link to this review lest I appear ridiculous - I know you lot. Still, Jackie took the trouble to post it, so…pretentious random thoughts they may be...
The author under review (and the reviewer for that matter) says that the existence of the multiverse as a reality is what leads to those aspects of quantum mechanics that can be perceived and measured (we’re back to that darn cat again, I note). This is something I can only accept by suspending my disbelief. I do this in order to watch something like Babylon 5 or to read an early Keith Laumer novel, but to accept this metaphysical concept as a reality, as the author does, is far more difficult. It really seems to be opening up the possibility of wormholes and time travel. I don’t say this in order to ridicule, but to demonstrate the amazing nature of things being said here – almost as though if you can imagine it then it exists even if it’s impossible. That is all wonderful and may be a hope for the future. People like to query the value of pure research, but in truth it opens up almost limitless possibilities.
All of this started me hunting for more information on theories of the universe and I found a great deal, some of which I may just have understood, but most that I didn’t and some just weird. As etaoin said - there's a lot of stuff on-line, isn't there? I found some work by Devin Harris, a new name to me. As with Stephen Hawking’s ‘A Brief History of Time’ I was given a feeling of concepts that were almost within my grasp, tantalizing glimpses rather like a dream that seems quite logical while you are dreaming, but on waking drifts away and no longer quite makes sense.
The big bang process for development of the universe is a simple enough image, but it seems to me to indicate that the universe cannot (at least yet) be infinite because the fact of expansion predicates the existence of an expanding outer boundary, for matter anyway, and of a finite amount of matter within it. Apparently the universe may grow indefinitely or not, depending on its curvature which in turn is governed by its density, but I am not clear whether that means that it would include an infinite number of all types of object or a finite number spread infinitely far apart. If there are, or will be, an infinite number of objects, then it would seem that every alternative that is possible within the known and unknown laws of physics must occur (an infinite number of times?). Because those alternative realities would then already exist in this universe it appears to me that there would be no need for alternative universes peeling off from ours every nanosecond and then themselves splitting and re-splitting as the choices multiplied infinitely. Or is that actually the mechanism by which infinity works? Or is it just an analogue?
I am not sure I can suspend my disbelief to the degree required! I thought I understood the concept of infinity; that was a conceit, now I know I don't – or at least I don’t think I believe in it except as a mathematical convenience.
|
|
|
|
|
