Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!shuksan!tahoma!lrm5110 From: lrm5110@tahoma.UUCP (Larry R. Masden) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Robots & free will (was Re: The limitations of logic) Message-ID: <280@tahoma.UUCP> Date: 31 Jan 89 16:22:21 GMT References: Organization: The Boeing Co., BCA FSL, Seattle, WA Lines: 23 From article , by ap1i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Andrew C. Plotkin): > For the record, I checked my quantum-for-the-idiot book. According to the > author (John Gribbin), I was wrong. The damn state function collapses if a > measurement is made, even if the measurement is made by a mindless instrument > and recorded on tape that's locked in a closet for ten years. In fact, it'll > even collapse if a measurement is *going* to be made; and if you change your > mind and turn off the instrument *after* the event but *before* the > measurement, you'll find that the function outguessed you and didn't collapse. What does all this mean? I'm not a physicist but I would guess that a mindless instrument collapses the state function of a quantum event *for itself only* when it makes a measurement and records the result on paper tape. Until you look at it, the paper tape record is also represented by a superposition of quantum states. Just because something is big dosn't mean that quantum physics don't apply . . . just like "what's his name's" cat. -- Larry Masden Voice: (206) 237-2564 Boeing Commercial Airplanes UUCP: ..!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!shuksan!tahoma!lrm5110 P.O. Box 3707, M/S 66-22 Seattle, WA 98124-2207