We probably all have heard the supposed Einstein quote: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
But he never said it. And in fact, Einstein would have known perfectly well that in a repeated quantum experiment, one does get different results.
http://www.businessinsider.com/misattributed-quotes-2013-10
No kidding?
No kidding.
Google
I rarely trust quote attributions anymore, not without double-checking...plus, I am starting to wonder if we might be experiencing quantum effects on the macro level much more than typically recognized
Well, Virginia, there are some physicists who have speculated that the entire universe is a gigantic quantum fluctuation.
Tink, I am assuming that is a serious speculation?
Do you have a way of expressing what that might actually mean, in terms I would understand, the significance if that were indeed true?
Yes, it's a serious speculation. On the quantum level of elementary particles, electrons, photons and more esoteric particles can momentarily pop in and out of existence from an underlying "quantum foam", sort of like bubbles appearing and popping in a simmering pot of pudding. The universe might just be an extra big bubble in this model.
Hmmm...well, I kinda like the idea...makes me feel...well...unnecessary, in a pleasant relaxing way...
Here's an article on the subject.
https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/a-mathematical-proof-that-the-universe-could-have-formed-spontaneously-from-nothing-ed7ed0f304a3
Pop! There goes one now!
Tink, maybe I understood about 25% of that article...nevertheless, smiling and enjoyed it very much...it's fun to read about, um, "metastable false vacuums" and such...
And hey, what's not to love about a theory that revives the Einstein cosmological constant? Didn't poor E call that his greatest mistake?
And we're gonna go with probabilistic rather than deterministic now? Yay!
* * *
As for coming out from nothing, one point I took from Hawking's most famous book, Brief History of Time, was that if you add all the anti-matter particles with the pro-matter particles of the universe, the sum is zero! Not sure Stephen actually intended it like that, but I jumped on the idea anyway!
Well, even if the matter/anti-matter particles were equal in number (which is in fact probably not the case in the visible universe), when an electron and a positron, say, mutually annihilate, you are not left with zero. Two energetic gamma rays are produced, which could then in turn interact with other gamma rays to produce particles again.
And yes, Bell's theorem, which we discussed some time ago, proves that local determinism is not possible at the quantum level.
Received Tink...and Bell's Theorem, ima review it again...maybe the most fascinating I have ever seen, and he did it in his spare time! He is SO wonderful, just very dear...