This isn't a cognitive tool or about the internet, but I said in my first post that I'd write about things that interest me, and I ever since I heard about this thought experiment I've been fascinated with quantum physics. Proposed by MIT Professor Max Tegmark in 1997, it starts out simply: you're in a bar and Walter White comes up to you holding a gun.
Ok, so I've updated the set up a bit. What can I say? I'm working my way through Breaking Bad on Netflix.
He comes up to you and offers you a deal: he has a new type of gun called a quantum revolver. He says that, in a new take on Russian Roulette, he wants you to point the gun at your head and pull the trigger. If you live, he'll give you a thousand dollars. If you die... well, you're dead so it doesn't matter what he does. Maybe he'll put you in a tub with acid. *Spoilers.* Of course, being the feared Heisenberg and carrying a special quantum revolver, there is a catch. The trigger mechanism is rigged to a nano-camera that can observe quantum particles called quarks. If, at the moment you pull the trigger, the quark is spinning clockwise, the gun won't go off. If the quark is spinning counter-clockwise, it will. What do you do?
Ok, so I've updated the set up a bit. What can I say? I'm working my way through Breaking Bad on Netflix.
He comes up to you and offers you a deal: he has a new type of gun called a quantum revolver. He says that, in a new take on Russian Roulette, he wants you to point the gun at your head and pull the trigger. If you live, he'll give you a thousand dollars. If you die... well, you're dead so it doesn't matter what he does. Maybe he'll put you in a tub with acid. *Spoilers.* Of course, being the feared Heisenberg and carrying a special quantum revolver, there is a catch. The trigger mechanism is rigged to a nano-camera that can observe quantum particles called quarks. If, at the moment you pull the trigger, the quark is spinning clockwise, the gun won't go off. If the quark is spinning counter-clockwise, it will. What do you do?
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| There's a METHod to his madness. |
There is an actual answer to this- you take the deal. And when you've pulled the trigger, you take the deal again. And again. And again. You keep on going and make yourself filthy rich (never mind that the money is coming from drug deals. Way to support addiction).
Unfortunately, it also means you'll be committing suicide each time you do it. Kind of win-some-lose-some thing.
So what am I talking about? In quantum physics, a particle exists in multiple states at the same time. The quark in the gun is going both clockwise and counter-clockwise at the same time. We know this from experiments which give that result, but we've never been able to actually observe this. This is because, according to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (get it now?!), you can never know the state of a particle because as soon as you observe it, the quantum state of it collapses and changes the way it behaves. Before you look at it, the particle exists in multiple states. As soon as it is observed, the state becomes one way or the other. And this isn't just a pot-head thing- this is the way the world actually is. Schrodinger's Cat is both dead and alive in the unobserved box at the same time (unless you don't feed it ever in which case it'll just be two different kinds of dead).
Back to the guy with a gun in a bar.
You pull the trigger. To you, you will never have to worry about being killed. That's because at the moment you pull the trigger, according to the Many-World's Theory of quantum physics (which I have doubts about but it is entirely possible and even necessary according to String Theory), the universe will split. In one, the quark will spin counter-clockwise and you'll die, in the other, the quark will collapse as spinning clockwise and you'll live.
The beauty of the theory is that you will only ever experience the world in which you live. That's because if you pull the trigger and the gun goes off, that's it, you're dead. You don't sense anything else. The version of you in the universe where the gun doesn't go off will continue on though and will remember every time you pulled the trigger and the gun didn't go off. For that version of you, you'll go on living completely oblivious to the other universes and you'll be $1000 richer.
That's why I found this thought experiment so fascinating. It's because one version of you will ALWAYS win and never have to worry about the infinite number of other you's that die. And at the end of the day, does the fact that you're dead in another universe really matter? You will never be able to go to that universe anyway- you can take the money and go on your merry way. Just don't blow it all on meth.
Unfortunately, it also means you'll be committing suicide each time you do it. Kind of win-some-lose-some thing.
So what am I talking about? In quantum physics, a particle exists in multiple states at the same time. The quark in the gun is going both clockwise and counter-clockwise at the same time. We know this from experiments which give that result, but we've never been able to actually observe this. This is because, according to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (get it now?!), you can never know the state of a particle because as soon as you observe it, the quantum state of it collapses and changes the way it behaves. Before you look at it, the particle exists in multiple states. As soon as it is observed, the state becomes one way or the other. And this isn't just a pot-head thing- this is the way the world actually is. Schrodinger's Cat is both dead and alive in the unobserved box at the same time (unless you don't feed it ever in which case it'll just be two different kinds of dead).
Back to the guy with a gun in a bar.
You pull the trigger. To you, you will never have to worry about being killed. That's because at the moment you pull the trigger, according to the Many-World's Theory of quantum physics (which I have doubts about but it is entirely possible and even necessary according to String Theory), the universe will split. In one, the quark will spin counter-clockwise and you'll die, in the other, the quark will collapse as spinning clockwise and you'll live.
The beauty of the theory is that you will only ever experience the world in which you live. That's because if you pull the trigger and the gun goes off, that's it, you're dead. You don't sense anything else. The version of you in the universe where the gun doesn't go off will continue on though and will remember every time you pulled the trigger and the gun didn't go off. For that version of you, you'll go on living completely oblivious to the other universes and you'll be $1000 richer.
That's why I found this thought experiment so fascinating. It's because one version of you will ALWAYS win and never have to worry about the infinite number of other you's that die. And at the end of the day, does the fact that you're dead in another universe really matter? You will never be able to go to that universe anyway- you can take the money and go on your merry way. Just don't blow it all on meth.
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