Saturday 23 March 2019

'The Observer is Part of the System' - revisited (again!)





'Two contradictory versions of reality can exist at the same time, quantum experiment shows

Experiments suggest there is no such thing as objective reality

From The Independent   by  Josh Gabbatiss
 

Two versions of reality can exist at the same time, at least in the quantum world, according to a new study.

Scientists have conducted tests to demonstrate a theoretical physics question first posed as a mere thought experiment decades ago.

Within the concept, two imaginary scientists are both deemed to be correct, despite arriving at totally different conclusions.

Demonstrating this in practice therefore calls into dispute fundamental questions about physics and suggests there is no such thing as objective reality.

The results were published on arXiv, a site for research that has yet to undergo full peer review, by a British team based at Heriot-Watt University.

They set out to explore “Wigner’s friend”, named after Nobel prize-winning physicist Eugene Wigner who came up with it 1961, which is based on the idea that a photon, or a particle of light, can exist in two possible states.

According to the laws of quantum mechanics, this “superposition” means the photon’s polarisation – or the axis upon which it spins – is both vertical and horizontal at the same time.

However, once one scientist in an isolated laboratory measures the photon, they find the photon’s polarisation is fixed at either vertical or horizontal.

At the same time, for someone who is outside the laboratory and is not aware of the result, the unmeasured photon is still in a state of superposition.

Despite these apparently conflicting realities, both are correct.
Read it all here, then get a Buddhist view at 


Quantum Buddhism  

How things exist - according to Buddhism and Science

Buddhism, Quantum Physics and Mind


 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this article. I've been following these things for a while. I can't help feeling that our understanding of reality is moving more and more in the direction of Vasubhandu's Twenty Verses on Consciousness. What is your view of the Yogacara school?