Remembrance of Things Future: The Mystery of Time
New York Times, June 28, 2005
"Traversable wormholes are primarily useful as a
'gedanken experiment' to explore the limitations of general relativity," said Dr. Francisco Lobo of the University of Lisbon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/science/28time.html?"Gedanken" is german for "thought". Perhaps the most famous "thought experiment" is "Schrodinger's Cat":
"In 1935 Schrodinger, who was responsible for formulating much of the wave mechanics in quantum physics, published an essay describing the conceptual problems in quantum mechanics. A brief paragraph in this essay described the, now famous, cat paradox."
" .... the paradox in some sense is not a paradox, but instead points out the tension between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds and the importance of the observer in a quantum scenario"
http://snipurl.com/fzy3Erwin Schrodinger, from Austria, spoke German so it is perhaps fitting that "thought experiments", of the type he made famous, are known as "gedanken experiments".
re
"the importance of the observer in a quantum scenario"It is interesting to consider the influence, or bias, of the observer in the macroscopic world.
Here's a small illustration.
If you asked the average person to name the most dangerous dog pet, they would probably say the pit bull. And, on the surface, that conclusion appears justified. For instance, pit bulls were the culprits in 45 of 145 dog attack fatalities during a selected period according to a San Francisco Chronicle analysis of reliable statistics, and Rottweilers ranked second with 25 attacks.
But, "despite the recent wave of publicity surrounding pit bull attacks, the number of fatal dog maulings has remained fairly constant -- averaging around 20 per year in the United States for decades." And "German shepherds killed more people than any other dog in the late 1970s, when many people favored the breed for its fierce reputation. Then, for two years, it was Great Danes. Rottweilers topped the list of killer dogs through most of the '90s, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control. Now it's pit bulls."
The trouble with dog bite 'facts':
" .. they generally do not take into account the popularity of the dogs: One breed may account for more attacks than another, simply because the breed is more common."
Now, here's an interesting question:
Why do some dog breeds acquire a reputation as "the fiercest" at any particular time?
Perhaps because the people who buy fierce dogs, buy the dog which they [and the public generally] believe is the fiercest dog.
If this theory is correct, a random rash of dog bite attacks by a particular breed would promote more purchases of this breed as a pet, resulting in more dog bites by this breed,
not because that breed is necessarily more ferocious than other breeds, but because it is more popular.
A self-fulfilling prophecy - an example of the reality-bending influence of the observer in the macroscopic world.
Does this macroscopic example mirror the influence of the observer in the microscopic world?
Not exactly. But the idea is tantalizing.
Data on pit bulls may be skewed by popularity
Rottweilers were deadliest dogs for much of 1990sErin McCormick, Todd Wallack, Chronicle Staff Writers
San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, July 3, 2005
http://snipurl.com/g00lOP
