Claimant - 'A knower' as the causal agent for the universe.

[RedFinch]

Hello everyone.

 

I've come across a rather condescending chap, who believes he has 'proof' of a 'knower' as the causal agent for the universe.

 

I'm an Engineer, so what he is proposing is a bit outside of my field. A few of us have asked him what credentials he holds, only to have "I'm human" and "none of your business" - strange, seeing that he claims to understand "real science"?

 

Anyway, this is his argument:

 

"1. Xiao-song Ma et al. (2013): Quantum erasure with causally disconnected choice. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110, pp. 1221-1226. The authors PUMMEL Naive Realism and take Local-Causality to the Woodshed (again)... "The presence of *PATH INFORMATION" anywhere in the universe is sufficient to prohibit any possibility of interference. It is irrelevant whether a future observer might decide to acquire it. The mere possibility is enough." [*Ergo, The LACK of *'which-path Information' anywhere in the Universe is sufficient enough to prohibit any possibility of Wave Function Collapse. i.e. Formation of Matter!!] "No NAIVE REALISTIC picture is compatible with our results because whether a quantum could be seen as showing particle- or wave-like behavior would depend on a causally disconnected choice. It is therefore suggestive to abandon such pictures altogether." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3557028/ 2. Kim, Y-H. et al. (2000). A Delayed Choice Quantum Eraser; Physical Review Letters 84, pp. 1–5. The authors show not only that "Knowledge" of 'which-path' Information solely collapses "The Wave Function" but can accurately predict future actions of "wave-like" and particle behavior after the Signal Photon has registered and before it's twin Idler has arrived; i.e., QM phenomena transcend Time and Space. SEE also: Walborn SP et al 2002, Scarcelli G et al 2005. http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/9903047v1.pdf In conclusion, this Experiment Validates: a. Knowledge (Knowing) the "which-path information" alone causes Wave Function Collapse. b. Decoherence (physical interaction with the measuring devices) DOES NOT cause Wave Function Collapse. c. QM Phenomena transcend Time and Space. i.e., Time and Space have NO MEANING in Quantum Mechanics. Sir Rudolph Peierls, PhD Nuclear Physics.... "The moment at which you can throw away one possibility and keep only the other is when you finally become conscience of the fact that the experiment has given one result... You see, the QUANTUM MECHANICAL description is in terms of knowledge, and KNOWLEDGE requires SOMEBODY WHO KNOWS." The Ghost in the Atom, p. 73-74"

 

My initial thoughts were a false dilemma - we have examples of bodies of information, that are not conscious. He's yet to address this.

 

Anyway, I'm looking for some input from qualified individuals - is this guy pretentious or is there any substance to his claims?

 

Cheers,

Red.

[imatfaal]

I haven't read in detail (the format makes it difficult to take in). But Delayed Quantum Eraser does not require someone to know anything - the interference is lost if you measure the idler in such a way as to preserve path information and the interference is maintained if you measure the idler in such a way which does not tell you which path.

 

The spooky thing is that you can delay measurement of the idler by a significant period of time such that you have already taken all your measurements for the signal - the measurement of the idler STILL destroys the interference. There is no need for conscious knowledge or a primer knower - the measurement is sufficient there is no need to interpret, understand or know the result