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So with another quiet day in the office comes time to ponder various things and what better than quantum mechanics? And rather than a maths problem this week, why not some physics?
Thinking about it from a more linear point of view, how do we prove events happen without any witnesses? You can use pretty much anything as an example.... Instead of a cat, we can use a car. For instance, a GTI crashing into a tree, killing the driver. In witnessing the event you can determine the outcome quite easily. The driver is dead. But you could also witness the GTI crashing into the tree and the driving walking away. The driver is alive.
But what if this? You witness the crashing into the tree but not the the state of the driver (and in this sort of example there are no other witnesses). The driver could end up dead or alive, but without seeing it how can you determine which has happened? In fact both outcomes could have occured and this is where you have to consider the infinite universe theory whereby the only universe you are aware of is the one in which events you witness are occuring. If an alternate outcome to the same event has also happened but you haven't witnessed it, can you prove it didn't also occur in an alternate branch of space time? I.e. can the same driver be dead and alive at the same time? Is it only by witnessing (or recording) an event that we can conclusively determine it ocurred?
I was also thinking about the age old time paradox... You know, going back in time in a GTI time machine and impacting the past so as to alter your own future (or even existence). This assumes that time is a constant. What if time is only a state? In leave a point in time and going back to an earlier point in time why can't your origin continue to exist? Consider time as a dimension rather than a constant. You end up creating another branch of time in parallell to the original time dimension to left from.
I wish there was a way to answer these sort of thoughts with absolute certainty!
Thinking about it from a more linear point of view, how do we prove events happen without any witnesses? You can use pretty much anything as an example.... Instead of a cat, we can use a car. For instance, a GTI crashing into a tree, killing the driver. In witnessing the event you can determine the outcome quite easily. The driver is dead. But you could also witness the GTI crashing into the tree and the driving walking away. The driver is alive.
But what if this? You witness the crashing into the tree but not the the state of the driver (and in this sort of example there are no other witnesses). The driver could end up dead or alive, but without seeing it how can you determine which has happened? In fact both outcomes could have occured and this is where you have to consider the infinite universe theory whereby the only universe you are aware of is the one in which events you witness are occuring. If an alternate outcome to the same event has also happened but you haven't witnessed it, can you prove it didn't also occur in an alternate branch of space time? I.e. can the same driver be dead and alive at the same time? Is it only by witnessing (or recording) an event that we can conclusively determine it ocurred?
I was also thinking about the age old time paradox... You know, going back in time in a GTI time machine and impacting the past so as to alter your own future (or even existence). This assumes that time is a constant. What if time is only a state? In leave a point in time and going back to an earlier point in time why can't your origin continue to exist? Consider time as a dimension rather than a constant. You end up creating another branch of time in parallell to the original time dimension to left from.
I wish there was a way to answer these sort of thoughts with absolute certainty!
Especially when a mod has already said infractions will be handed out and excessive OT posts is against the rules! Like I said, my OP is as auto related as the Monty Hall Dilemma thread which was actively participated in by mods. Hence my reasoning this sort of thing is fine.
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