Re: signature

In article <374...@news.tcp.co.uk>, James Mitchelhill
<azi...@tcp.co.unitedkingdom> writes
>>>Ahaa.. simply give the crate a good shake and see if the cat meows
>>>at you.  Or, smear your hand with tuna and stick it in the crate.
>>>If you feel somethnig licking the tuna off your hand, its very
>>>likely the cat is alive.
>>>
>>>Simple! ;O)
>>
>> Except that would be observing it.  It's really no more than,
>>"if an event is not observed, does it really happen" (yes).
>
><bluff mode=physics>
>Actually, it's a lot more than "if an event is not observed, does it
>really happen." What it is is:
>"an event has only had happened once it has been observed"
>
>Until you observe the cat being alive and dead the cat is (actually it
>isn't but oh well) a quantum waveform. It is in both states, until you
>observe it and collapse the quantum waveform into either state 1 or 2
>(dead or alive). From that time on, the event has happened an
>indeterminate time before it was observed to.

 Ah.  The real question is "if quantum-scale events are described
 by coexisting probabilities  and room-scale events are definite,
 where and how does the transition occur?  if you link a roomscale
 event to a quantum event, do you make it indefinite??"  No. That
 would be silly.  And while "the fact that it is being observed
 into the roomscale world" may make things definite, "the conscioussness
 of the person observing" is damn all to do with it.  Such an 
 explanation is LIKE saying things don't exist if not observed
 in its general approach, i.e. misguided.


 My own take is that the whole system behaves according to what the
 determining elements of the whole system are: it is non-locally
 connected so as to maintain indeterminacy (but never to pass 
 room-scale information). It figuratively "knows"  whether there
 is macroscopic measuring instruments in the system, and if there
 are then the system is determinate.  Rather like the photon
 "knows" whether it is approaching one slot or two.

 The cat is entirely alive or entirely dead, because the atom
 is definitely decayed or definitely not, because coupling it
 to massive measuring instruments has collapsed the waveform ---
 whether or not you opened the box yet.
 

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