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From: palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu (David Palmer)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Robots & free will (was Re: The limitations of logic)
Keywords: quantum measurements
Message-ID: <9256@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 25 Jan 89 06:26:22 GMT
References: <3328@sdsu.UUCP> <43228@linus.UUCP> <539@uceng.UC.EDU> <3550@ingr.com> <226@UNIX386.Convergent.COM> <1374@arctic.nprdc.arpa>
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Reply-To: palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (David Palmer)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
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In article <1374@arctic.nprdc.arpa> bickel@nprdc.arpa (Steven Bickel) writes:
>In article <226@UNIX386.Convergent.COM> mark@UNIX386.Convergent.COM (Mark Nudelman) writes:
>>
>> [ deleted ]
>>from the viewpoint of quantum physics, the important event is the
>>MEASUREMENT, which need not involve consciousness per se.  For example,
>>consider a measuring device which detects a quantum event and prints
>>the result on a piece of paper.  The device is left alone in a room
>>
>     The problem is entirely the fact that someone (with consciousness)
>     had to design and build the measuring device.

Quantum events can be recorded on devices which need not have been designed
by an intelligent entity.  I believe that one such case is tracks in mica,
formed by fission products from the decay of radioactive elements.  This is
a clear case of a quantum event recorded by a serendipitous measuring device.

If you want to really get metaphysical, here's a scary thought: the state
of the universe which we see around us is just one of many possible
intermediate states of the universe's wave function, and at the end
of time, GOD (whoever she is) takes the lid off the box containing
the universe and takes a look, and it all collapses into its final state.
[If you start a religion based on this idea, I get 10% of the gross.]

Here's the corresponding comforting thought:  It doesn't matter if
the Universe does collapse into a final state, as long as the 
the wave function we currently observe contributes to the final state.
(Does it really matter which slit the photon went through?)

		David Palmer
		palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu
		...rutgers!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!palmer
	"I was sad that I had no shirt, until I met a man with no torso"