Re: What is the shape of Universe?
Painius
in message news:o0Mnl.525481$TT4.441124@attbi_s22...
> Painius wrote:
>>
>> It's a little surprising, S9, that you're going off on relativity
>> with these little cap pistols, LIGO and GP-B. Why the heck
>> aren't you attacking with the big guns?
>>
>> There are physicists out there who believe that the lab-
>> proven quantum concept of "entanglement" has the
>> marked potential to bring the theory of relativity and all
>> modern physics to its knees.
>
> In fact there is an article in March 2009 issue of Sci Am
> that makes that argument that the universe is non-local as
> was assumed by Einstein... but I would like to point out
> that that argument is far from over--and that, so far, special
> relativity is holding its own.
>
> That article concludes with...
>
> "Quantum-mechanical wave functions cannot
> be represented mathematically in anything smaller
> than a mind-bogglingly high-dimensional
> space called a configuration space. If, as some argue,
> wave functions need to be thought of as concrete
> physical objects, then we need to take seriously
> the idea that the world’s history plays itself
> out not in the three-dimensional space of our everyday
> experience or the four-dimensional spacetime
> of special relativity but rather this gigantic
> and unfamiliar configuration space, out of which
> the illusion of three-dimensionality somehow
> emerges. Our three-dimensional idea of locality
> would need to be understood as emergent as well.
> The nonlocality of quantum physics might be
> our window into this deeper level of reality.
>
> "The status of special relativity, just more than
> a century after it was presented to the world, is
> suddenly a radically open and rapidly developing
> question. This situation has come about because
> physicists and philosophers have finally followed
> through on the loose ends of Einstein’s longneglected
> argument with quantum mechanics—
> an irony-laden further proof of Einstein’s genius.
> The diminished guru may very well have been
> wrong just where we thought he was right and
> right just where we thought he was wrong. We
> may, in fact, see the universe through a glass not
> quite so darkly as has too long been insisted".
>
> Stay tuned!
>
>> So why use a couple sticks of dynamite when you can drop
>> a nuclear bomb?
>>
>> Is there or is there not nonlocality and spooky action at a
>> distance?
>
> Stay tuned!
>
> And try not to knock off special relativity without
> having something that encompasses it--for there has
> yet to be an observation that contradicts a prediction
> of special relativity.
>
> What may change is our concept of locality.
And yet Sam, i find it extremely difficult to envision a
reality in which "a fist in Des Moines can break a nose
in Dallas without affecting any other physical thing
(not a molecule of air, not an electron in a wire, not a
twinkle of light) anywhere in the heartland".
So *what* if entanglement as been shown empirically
to be a part of reality? What good is it? You can't
instantly send matter anywhere with it. You can't
even transmit information instantly with it. The reality
of entanglement is useless. It certainly appears to
adhere to that old adage...
"useless as teats on a boar hog"
At this point, i can see no serious challenges to the
theory of relativity coming from entanglement. It's a
single, small nimbus cloud in an otherwise clear, blue
sky.
There are other clouds, to be sure. But there are a
few physicists who would have us believe the sky to
be filled with anvils and huge thunderstorms coming
closer and closer...
O! do you hear that rumble?
Doth panic fill your heart?
Could relativity tumble
Via quantum peanut fart?
happy days and...
starry starry nights!
--
Indelibly yours,
Paine Ellsworth
P.S.: "What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out."
> Alfred Hitchcock
P.P.S.: http://Astronomy.painellsworth.net
http://PoisonFalls.painellsworth.net
http://TheInternetStory.painellsworth.net...
Ch. 17
BradGuth
> "Sam Wormley" <sworml...@mchsi.com> wrote...
>
> in messagenews:o0Mnl.525481$TT4.441124@attbi_s22...
My goodness, our Mr. Naysay is in perpetual denial (aka obfuscation
mode) whenever there's anything capable of rocking your mainstream
Einstein status quo boat. You're sounding more and more Jewish by the
day.
~ BG