Week 44
Is the universe inherently random because quantum mechanics says so
It says no such thing
The Copenhagen interpretation of QM makes that claim. Most Quantum Mechanics popularizes we see and hear on media follow the Copenhagen or the Many-World interpretation of QM. This interpretation is not the only one. All the weird results we hear originate from these two interpretations.
Why so many follow CQM then? Copenhagen QM allowed researchers to compute very easily, it also came first, and beyond that, the researchers really did not ask many questions. There is a certain lazyness if you ask me the way scientists avoid the deeper questions in this field. But they have been chasing their tail in so many other fields as well; as in String Theory.
Einstein was always uncomfortable with Copenhagen QM and he encouraged research on PWT. He nagged at Niels Bohr for decades, he bugged him with thought experiments, Bohr answered, until his death apparently, a piece of formula found on his study’s blackboard after is death was another Einstein question. He could be regularly heard in the hallways of this university mumbling “Einstein! Einstein!” after another curveball question.
Although CQM did not originate in US, I believe it became a quitessential American phenomenon. Because 1) it lets one compute, something Americans like, action-oriented, you are “doing it” so forth 2) beyond computation there is bunch of mystery where you can go “woah duudeeee, the universe is so vast… So mysterious.. I’m blown away by it… “
Needless to say we need to get out of this mode of thinking. Mystery does not have to be confusing, and bullshit.
Comment
Despite vast increases in the time and money spent on research, progress is barely keeping pace with the past.
Partly true
The pace of inventions and developments is fantastic. But to the extent that they slowed down in areas, delusional thinking in big-think concepts like QM and String Theory are weighing everybody down.
Legislation
Let’s build an energy efficient smart-grid
Useless
You don’t need smart grid bcz there is a way to store and transport clean energy in huge amounts, with high energy density. Ammonia or hydrogen both fit the bill. I’d look at what EU and Japan are doing.
News
Scientists have created a molecule that can store solar energy for 18 years
Great
EFF
When corporations get to decide how to balance their profits against public safety, you get things like @verizon throttling firefighters during an emergency.
Yikes
Wired
Lots of wind along with very dry vegetation turned the Northern California wildfire into a high-speed menace that tore through Paradise and Buttle County
Sad
.. and the climate inaction in US is completely the fault of centrist Democrats.
CNBC
The government policy that is inflating the money supply is the Chinese currency peg. China is a magnet for foreign capital, bringing in far more in exports and investment than it pays out. Normally, this would result in the value of foreign currencies depreciating relative to the local currency. But in order to maintain its fixed exchange rate, China’s central banks buys all those extra dollars and euros, replacing them with renminbi. This means that the government is constantly expanding the money supply. And as long as that keeps happening, China will keep on experiencing elevated inflation.
Right
Current scheme (huge foreign reserves) is inflationary for China. No matter at what level one keeps the local currency, you are never in control of your money supply because intense influx of foreign capital (exports, investments) has to be converted to local currency, at some level, and that can be inflationary.
Sean Carroll
The state of the “quantum disagreement” in the phyics community is an embarrassment.
The understatement of the year
They asked physicist their favorite interpretation of QM and the video shows the results. Even the CQM people are at 42%. Forty two. This is the mainstream! Caroll himself follows the Many-Worlds interpretation (at 18%). So for them Schrodinger’s cat would not be dead and alive, but the dead cat and the alive cat would be….wait for it.. in different universes. Pffffff..fffff yeah man.. it blows my mind….
Let’s clarify it with an example..
So the evil Shatner in one universe would have the dead cat. The good Shatner would have the alive cat.
Or the other way around..
NYT
Mr. Trump’s critics should continue fighting fiercely against his attempts — on Twitter and off — to undermine the rule of law, to rig the system in favor of himself and his cronies and to take down not only the Constitution but also quite possibly, if he gets the chance, the Ptolemaic model, Newton’s Law [..]
Ptolemaic model was already wrong
.. and Copernicus took care of that.
Snowden
You can despise Wikileaks and everything it stands for. You can think Assange is an evil spirit reanimated by Putin himself. But you cannot support the prosecution of a publisher for publishing without narrowing the basic rights every newspaper relies on.
Yes