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From: jru@etn-rad.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.research
Subject: Re: Universe As Hologram
Message-ID: <295@etn-rad.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-Oct-87 14:09:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: etn-rad.295
Posted: Tue Oct 13 14:09:41 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Oct-87 04:47:30 EDT
References: <7402@ism780c.UUCP>
Reply-To: jru@etn-rad.UUCP (John Unekis)
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Organization: Eaton Inc. IMSD, Westlake Village, CA
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Xref: linus sci.space:3253 sci.research:261

In article <7402@ism780c.UUCP> jimh@ism780c.UUCP (Jim Hori) writes:
>There's been some discussion of faster-than-light (FTL)
>on the net; here are the first two paragraphs from an article
>in the September 22 Village Voice titled "The Universe As Hologram"
>written by Michael Talbot. Any response about these experiments,
>......
>In 1982 a remarkable event took place. At the University of Paris
>a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect performed what may
>.....
>Aspect and his team discovered that under certain circumstances
>subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously
>communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating
.....

This is a common misunderstanding of quantum mechanics. There are are 
number of experiments which create a pair of particles with complementary 
properties. Lets say that particle X decays and produces 2 Y particles,
one of which is red, and the other blue. We can't tell which is which
without looking at them, and they are so small that looking at them
will destroy them. We must assume that each has an equal probability of
being red or blue until such time as they react with something else.
Suppose that the particles get separated by a distance of several miles.
Then we look at one particle and find it to be blue. This means that the
other particle, miles away, instantaneously TURNS RED. How did it know
to do this? There must be some magical means of communication, right?
That means Einstein was wrong and we can go faster than light, and maybe
ESP exists, and this explains the Bermuda Triangle too? WRONG. Nothing
is actually communicated between the particles, it is simply a misconception
on the part of us humans that makes us think that finding out what one 
particle is causes the other one to change. I suspect that the reason that
we have never heard of Dr. Aspect is that he is a RANK AMATEUR who 
is (hopelessly by accident) deceiving the public into thinking that his
repetition of years-old quantum expirements has allowed him to discover
some new principle.