From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Thu Aug 07 2003 - 01:46:23 MDT
Jeff Davis wrote:
> Extropes,
>
> I've got a question.
>
> You generate two entangled and undisturbed photons,
> which head off in different directions toward distant
> detectors.
> [...]
> Can it be determined, at detector number two, whether
> the wave function has already--presumably at detector
> number one--been "collapsed", whether the photons have
> already been "disentangled"?
Jeff, this question used to confuse the living daylights out of me until I
encountered many-worlds theory. Now it still confuses the living
daylights out of me, but I can at least see what the answer is supposed to
be, and where it's supposed to come from. I think. I'm not going to try
and explain it because I don't understand it that well yet. Anyway,
many-worlds theory, which gets rid of that nasty "collapse" business, is
where I think you should look for an *intuitively visualizable* answer.
Afterward you should be able to translate your visualization back to
conventional quantum mechanics, if necessary.
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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