literature

'Schroedinger'

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Literature Text

The light echoes in roiling waves,
whispering, shuddering, in twisting paths
that have no definitive beginnings or ends
in a place where all find total internal reflections
and echo unto the thousandth generation,
until there is observation, and waveforms collapse
in void that does not seem to exist, binding
around an unbroken lattice and so becoming real.

But the content, and the observer, are at issue--
what is watched, and what watches, and
watches the watchers and
the watchers' watchers, for only the final
in the chain determines what is observed,
but when all disturbances settle
and the chain resolves,
the chain is not resolved and will never resolve,
for there will never be a final observer.

If there is, will it be God?
Thoughts on metaphysics.
© 2006 - 2024 sukael
Comments11
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Lesson in quantum mechanics - the wavefunction itself is never measured/observed; all that is measured is the Eigen-values resulting from operation of certain 'physical' linear Hermitian operators on the wavefunction.

Schrödinger’s Equation is an energy Eigen value equation. And it is not even relativistic-ally true. Relativistic-ally it is either Dirac equation or the Klein Gordon equation depending upon whether you are interested on propounding on existence of negative energy solutions and anti-particles

Since not all operators commute and hence are bound by some uncertainty relation, therefore how you describe the system depends on what you want to use to describe the system, and the resulting descriptions are not equivalent.

While classically whether you look at an object in ultraviolet or infrared spectrum, the object itself remains the same object. In quantum mechanics it is not the case, just take the beaten to death position-momentum uncertainty – if you chose to describe the “system” in position Eigen functions then the description obtained is guaranteed to be of a different system as compared to one described by using momentum Eigen functions.

There is a notion of Quantum Measurement that would clarify exactly what you are asking here. Quantum Mechanics is mysterious, just not quite that mysterious. There is philosophical weight to it (beside cold hard mathematics), but it is not quite the black magic you make it out to be. Eugene Wigner was once asked "what is particle?" "An irreducible representation of the Poincare group," was all he said. See, no black magic.

Perhaps the philosophical content you wish to address is Virginia Woolf's existential quagmire - does the tree fall in the forest if no one observes it.

And I can tell you the answer. In Quantum Electrodynamics there is what is supposed to be one of the least intuitive aspects of Quantum Mechanics - the Casimir Effect, from which it can be interpolated that vacuum energy of a large parallel plate capacitor if different from vacuum energy of a smaller parallel plate capacitor, and now a quote an old physics professor - "which is a direct manifestation of fact that even places that aren't observed must obey boundary conditions."

Thus, if the boundary conditions demand the tree falls, the tree falls regardless of the observer.

Here is your "God".

This is a fine piece of writing, I just thought you could use some elucidation on a subject that you find interesting enough to write about.