What if... everyone's face turns into different forms when no one is looking? And become human, instantly, only when they're observed by anything, like by eyes or cameras? And everyone you know, doesn't look like the way that they really are, because they turn into the human face you recognize, as soon as you see them? And no one knows what their true face is, because as soon as we look in the mirror, or take a self picture, we're observing ourselves, and we turn instantly into our human face?
Just_John said: What if... everyone's face turns into different forms when no one is looking? And become human, instantly, only when they're observed by anything, like by eyes or cameras? And everyone you know, doesn't look like the way that they really are, because they turn into the human face you recognize, as soon as you see them? And no one knows what their true face is, because as soon as we look in the mirror, or take a self picture, we're observing ourselves, and we turn instantly into our human face?
Quantum Mechanics: you do NOT want to go there...
If you take it to the scientific conclusion, anything you're not directly observing, such as the space behind you, exists in the superposition of all possible states (including, for example, containing a serial killer with a large knife). It's only when you observe it that the wavefunction collapses into a discrete state (most likely, but not certainly, the state without serial killers).
Greg Egan's novel Quarantine explores some implications of this, as well as the ability to manipulate such wavefunctions. Such as opening doors by rattling the doorknob, and walking past guards who all happen to be looking the other way.
If you take it to the scientific conclusion, anything you're not directly observing, such as the space behind you, exists in the superposition of all possible states (including, for example, containing a serial killer with a large knife). It's only when you observe it that the wavefunction collapses into a discrete state (most likely, but not certainly, the state without serial killers).
Greg Egan's novel Quarantine explores some implications of this, as well as the ability to manipulate such wavefunctions. Such as opening doors by rattling the doorknob, and walking past guards who all happen to be looking the other way.
"did eh plei metal Gir solide 4? it sounded like the gamplay of mgs4 that he is copying in his biseksual buuk."
Thought I'd just vent my distaste for that game on some obscure corner of the planet.
If you take it to the scientific conclusion, anything you're not directly observing, such as the space behind you, exists in the superposition of all possible states (including, for example, containing a serial killer with a large knife). It's only when you observe it that the wavefunction collapses into a discrete state (most likely, but not certainly, the state without serial killers).
Greg Egan's novel Quarantine explores some implications of this, as well as the ability to manipulate such wavefunctions. Such as opening doors by rattling the doorknob, and walking past guards who all happen to be looking the other way.
Well, that's true if you use the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, that's true, but many (most?) scientists believe that Many-Worlds better fits scientific philosophy, and therefore choose to believe in that barring a discovery of an absolute maximum on the physical size of a quantum phenomenon. Anyway, Many-Worlds tends to make more sense (even if it's much harder to describe): whenever you observe a quantum superposition, you become a superposition of you having observed any of the potential states of said superposition, but all of your potential states are unaware of each other, and from each of their points of view, the superposition collapsed into a single thing (since each of you can only observe one of them). This effect will spread at the speed of light until the entire universe is a superposition, effectively creating a parallel universe with one thing that's different--hence, Many-Worlds interpretation.
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