WEBVTT - How Quantum Suicide Works 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:07.480 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:16.759 from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:19.800 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:26.279 Charles W. Chuckers Bryant, son of Mrs Bryant. Yeah. Yeah, 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:30.880 just kept the name good for her. I like your mom. Yeah, 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:32.560 have you met my mom? Yeah? I met your mom 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.080 at They Love your Mama opening appropriately enough. That's right. 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:39.280 I thought you said your name was Josh Quark for 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:43.760 a second there. If that was off the cuff, I'll 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.000 accept that I did. I just made that up. It 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:49.160 is not written down anywhere. That is great. Um, Chuck 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:51.640 said that because we're going to be talking about quantum 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:57.640 physics today and quarks are Um it's my understanding, Chuck 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:02.440 that they're the the fundamental basis of matter. Yeah. They 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:04.760 make up hadrons, which you may You may know that 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.480 because we talked about the Large Hadron collider. Yeah, up 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:10.880 until about like thirty seconds ago, I didn't know why 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.559 it was called the large hadron. Yeah. Well, there's six quarks, Josh. 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.800 They are known as flavors, which is kind of cool 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:25.080 up down, charm strange top and bottom, and apparently charms 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:29.240 strange top and bottom. You can only um be produced 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:34.319 with like a big collision, like the hadron collider, a 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:38.240 large hadron collider. Huh. And there's also antiquark too, which 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.240 is like the opposite. Yeah, those are the quarks that 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:45.880 smoke cigarettes and wear leather jackets exactly. Um chuck. Quarks 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.680 exist on their particles, their matter, right, they're the building 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:51.920 box of matter, That's what I understand. So they exist 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:56.520 on the sub atomic level, smaller than atoms or below atom, 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:01.200 depending on you know how you like the words sub um. 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:05.800 And they exist in this weird world, the quantum world. 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:10.520 And they they bump elbows against photons, which are my 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:18.720 favorite sub atomic I guess, particles, um, and plenty of 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:24.480 other weird strange It's like this odd parade of physical things, right, 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.959 I don't like it. There, I can understand why you don't, 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:32.360 because it's a very disconcerting and uncomfortable world. The the 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:37.919 very comforting ideals and principles of Newtonian physics, which are 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.080 what goes up must come down. The Sun's going to 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.080 rise tomorrow. Uh, depending on whether or not you're Robert Hume, 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:51.960 um adherent, David Hume adherent. Um. Just these things that 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.880 we can depend on, We've come to depend on since 0:02:54.919 --> 0:03:00.520 Isaac Newton, you know, you know his breakthroughs. I learned 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.280 a lot about myself reading this. Actually, did you learn 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.120 that you get angry easily? No, It's just like the 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:11.760 whole notion of like stepping outside reality disturbed me. Yes. 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:16.440 And what's even more disturbing is that this this universe 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.639 is envisioned by some very very smart people, or I 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:22.520 should say what I perceived as reality, by the way, 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:26.200 I just want to clear that up nice. So, Chuck, 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:30.280 we've done when on the large Hadron collider, right, this 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:34.200 is just like this, this this huge, fancy, multibillion dollar 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:39.400 machine that's new that's still going right. Um. Back in 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.120 the nineties, they didn't have these large Hadron colliders to like, 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.240 you know, rely on to actually see and measure and 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:49.200 detect things on the quantum world. They had to use 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:56.080 their imaginations. Physicists did, and uh, specifically there was a 0:03:56.160 --> 0:04:00.000 physicist who used his imagination for what's called the thought experiment. 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:04.760 It where Yeah, this guy's name is Max tag Mark. 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.840 He is awesome, He's he was at Princeton at the time. Now, 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.280 I think he's a M I. T. And he came 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:14.680 up with a thought experiment called quantum suicide. And will 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.360 you allow me to explain it as follows, please do? Okay, 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:23.120 So you are a guy and you're sitting in a 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:27.200 room and there's a gun pointed at you at your head. 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:29.600 I don't like where this is kill shot. And you're 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:33.240 looking at the barrel, right, and the guns a little off. 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:34.680 I mean, it's a normal gun, but it took it 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:38.200 up to this new fangled machine, right. And this machine 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:43.080 is set so that it measures a cork. It measures 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:47.080 the spin of a cork. Right, So let's just say, 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.279 for simplicity's sake, although you've already said this isn't true, 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.880 let's just say that a cork can only spin clockwise 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:59.040 or counterclockwise. Okay, Um, this this machine is set so 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.000 that every time the person sitting in front of the 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:05.080 gun presses a button, the cork is measured. If the 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:08.919 cork is measured with a clockwise spin, the gun's not 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:12.200 gonna go off. They'll just be a click, okay, Right. 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.719 If when the guy presses the button, the cork is 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:20.239 measured and it comes up with a counter clockwise spin. 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.480 The gun's gonna go off, The trigger will be pulled, 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:27.239 the bullet will actually the chamber, it will travel several 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:29.400 feet across the room into the head of the man 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:31.280 sitting in front of the gun, and he will die 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.239 guarantee death like it's a kill shot. Okay. What's weird 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:40.760 is that in this quantum suicide thought experiment, Max tag 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.560 Mark figured out that if this guy pressed the button 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:51.800 every single time, he's going to hear a click, click click, click, 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:54.720 click click, no matter how many times he presses it, 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.800 no matter how long he tries this, all he'll be 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.640 aware of is this clicking of the gun because he lives. Yes, 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:06.880 he lives in every single scenario. How can that possibly be. 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:09.320 Let's go back to the beginning that first time the 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:15.040 guy pressed the button. Okay, what happened in another parallel 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:19.839 universe is the gun went off and he died, right. Okay, 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.719 So with that first experiment, the the universe split into two, 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:26.640 one where the gun went off and he died, one 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.520 where he just heard a click. Now if we follow 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.320 the one where he heard the click every time he 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:36.080 presses that button and the cork is measured, Uh, the 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.800 universe splits into two, but he's only aware of the 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.440 one where he just hears a click, because that's one 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:45.800 where he's alive, and if he died, he clearly wouldn't 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:50.040 understand that because he'd be dead. Yes, so part one 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.200 of mind melt starts just started. I think that that's 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:57.000 the quantum suicide thought experiment. Yeah, I like it. Yeah, 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:03.400 it was pretty mind boggling um and it's used to well, 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:07.039 it's pretty exemplary of the kind of goofy, like you said, 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:11.840 mind melting um ideas that are are brought up on 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:15.440 to explain quantum physics. Right, what you have to do 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:19.239 you have to use thought experiments because you can't use there. 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:21.520 It's unpredictable at that level, so you can't use like 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.560 regular scientific method right. And one of the reasons why 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:28.559 it's unpredictable is because when you look at, say a cork, 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.240 if a cork only had a spin of clockwise or 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.800 counter clockwise science quantum physicists have found that when you 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.520 observe a quark um, one time you'll observe it and 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:43.600 it's spinning clockwise. The next time you'll observe it's spinning counterclockwise. 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.960 Or even more unsettlingly, they found that photons, these smallest 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.560 packets of light. You can look at a single photon 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:53.520 at one point or measure it and it's a particle. 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:56.360 You can measure it the next time the same photon 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.000 and it's a wave. So this is kind of like 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:03.320 some buddy running, walking, and swimming at the same time 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.120 in different directions, right, this so that, like you said, 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.520 it's it's it's uncomfortable that what they're finding on the 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.200 quantum level. So what you got, Josh, is is a 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:16.520 chaotic situation and that's sort of how it exists now. 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:18.760 But as you pointed out, you wrote this, I should 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:22.000 point out, and this is a performer, this one has 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:26.920 done really well. Right, you should tell yourself. But sometimes 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:29.400 scientists think that the more we learned that some order 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:31.640 will fall into place on the quantum level at some 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:36.080 point well hopefully, yeah, hopefully here else either theory after theory, 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.560 either that or else. Yeah, it's like the the the 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.880 laws of physics don't the laws of Newtonian physics just 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:44.760 don't apply on a certain level down to they just 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:50.120 apply on you know, the specified level um. One of 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:54.560 the one of the fundamental tenants that that has long 0:08:54.640 --> 0:09:02.600 been debated. Um is the idea of Heisenberg's certain new principle. Right, So, 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.320 one of the one of the things, like early on 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.280 in quantum physics and like the twenties, um, there are 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.760 a lot of guys who were trying to explain why 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:17.679 these weird things were showing up right, well, inconsistent at least, right, 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.439 And one of the one of the early guys, one 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:27.559 of the early physicists was Werner Heisenberg. Yeah, Mexican, Yeah, 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:31.200 Vanda Heisenfelg And he came up with this explanation or 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.679 this I guess he'd pointed out, like a major flaw 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:38.880 with quantum mechanics is that when we observe something, just 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:44.760 the act of observing something, we influence its behavior. Right, Yeah, 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:47.400 this is where I started to get a little hinky 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.720 with this. I understand it in concept, like even like 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:54.120 shining a light on something that's small will will cause 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:55.920 it to to change. But it gets a little more 0:09:55.960 --> 0:10:00.360 like philosophical than that. Well, yeah, like simply king at 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.120 something will affect the outcome. That's a really great point, Chuck. 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:07.920 There's the quantum um physics has a lot of philosophy 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:13.760 and logic tied into math. It's not just straight up math. 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:16.800 There's philosophy to it. Sort of appeals to me on 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:18.959 that level, but it's it's doesn't make it easier to 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.240 understand for me. Well, this is how Heisenberg' uncertainty principle 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.679 was explained to me once. Um, if you let's say 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:30.720 you're blind and you have this ball, heavy ball that 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.000 that has a lot of bounce to it, um that 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:35.920 you've learned to basically see with you know how bat 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:39.959 uses sonar, yeah, to bound bounce back the wave to 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.240 find out how far they are from something. Sure, Right, 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:44.440 Let's say you've you've learned to kind of do the 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:46.680 same thing but with the ball, right okay, and you 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:48.920 know that there's a chair across the room and you 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.400 want to figure out roughly how far away the chair is. 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:53.840 So you throw your ball at the chair and you 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:57.120 manage to hit it, and the ball takes a second 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:59.600 and a half to come back to you. And after 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:01.679 you know, being pretty good at this point, now you 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:03.880 know that the chairs about thirty feet away. That's how 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:06.120 long it takes for something for for the ball to 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:07.440 get back to you. In a second and a half, 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:09.920 with about as hard as you threw it. Right, what 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:13.120 you've just figured out is the position of the chair, 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:15.840 or where the chair was when you threw the ball 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:20.880 at it. What the problem is is you've just influenced 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:22.920 the behavior of the chair. You just threw a ball 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:26.840 against it, so you sent it careening off into space, 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:29.720 and now you have no idea where it is. Yeah, 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:32.240 I get that. I get the ball moving the chair. 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:36.120 What I don't get is looking at something. Well on 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:39.960 on this level, consider this with photons. Remember the smallest 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:45.800 packet of light my favorite quantum particle um. There is 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.120 a nano machine which is it's a motor, right, and 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:53.360 it's operated by shooting light at it. So this these 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:57.640 packets of light that have no mass and no charge. 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:03.080 This the partticles we're talking about so small that a photon, 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.640 a little packet of light can actually influence them. So 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.640 we use light to see. Say, let's say just and 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:13.280 this is this is a very basic elementary explanation, but 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.640 we use light to see. If we have the light on, 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:21.520 there's photons just bombarding something, right, So phots, if a 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:26.080 photon can hit a particle, we know where it's position was. 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:28.600 When we turn the light on, but we don't know 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:30.640 where it is now because the photons just sent it 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:34.400 careening elsewhere, right, which delves back a little bit into 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:36.880 the philosophical Like you walk into a dark room and 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:38.439 you don't know where the chair is until you turn 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:41.960 the light off. But did the light move the chair? Right? 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:46.600 That's that's that's exactly right, right, That's that's what smart 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.600 people have to say about quantum mechanics. What R I 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.480 don't get it? Okay, I got it, But you do 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.200 get it because you just expect it perfectly. I was 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.600 just kidding, right, Okay, all right, So that's Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:02.920 and that's been something that kind of provided a conundrum 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:07.200 for quantum physicists, and not everybody's bought into that, right, Well, 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:09.040 and that's why they had to dream up the thought 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:15.600 experiment to begin with. Okay, so if just observing a 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:20.680 um a particle means we affect its behavior, well, then 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:25.319 maybe we should use thought experiments, especially pre large hadron 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:29.439 collider physicists. This is their their thought process, right, So 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:31.880 this is why tag Mark came up with the quantum 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:36.520 suicide thought experiment. Um, But he didn't he came up 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:42.800 with the thought experiment to prove another quantum theory called 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:47.520 the many world's interpretation. Yeah, Hugh Everett, fellow Princetonian UH 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:50.520 in seven. And I know he was stoked, like because 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:53.600 forty years people were kind of like, I don't know 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:56.800 about this many worlds thing until your guy came along. 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:59.600 Call him your guy. I've actually chatted with him. He's 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:02.760 a good guy. Oh that's right. And I provided a 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:06.400 picture like forty years, right, Yeah, nineteen fifty seven and 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.800 ninety seven, exactly four years then, Um, and it supports 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:14.640 quantum suicide. The many worlds theory is UH. For each outcome, 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:18.320 each each each possible outcome to an action, the world 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:21.080 copies itself. It splits into a copy of its right, 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:26.080 and it's simultaneous, and we have absolutely no power over whatsoever. Um. 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:31.320 It's a process called decohesion. So Chuck, This this universe 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.680 that we're in right now is going along smoothly because 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:40.360 there's no choice or option. Right. But let's say, Um, 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:42.280 I'm deciding whether or not to take a sip of 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.720 this coffee or not. Just making that decision. I didn't 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:50.720 just now, but the there was decohesion when I made 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:55.720 that decision not to because in another universe, another parallel 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:57.880 universe now exists where I did take a sip of 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.160 that coffee. Well, yeah, and the key here is that 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.280 you don't know that this other universe has been created, No, 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:05.960 because you know and you want to you want to 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:08.520 imagine that you can look over to your right somewhere 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.480 and you see yourself to drinking the coffee. But you can't. 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.880 We're not we're not cognizant of that universe. It's it's 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:21.560 branched off. They're no longer cohesive, right, and that supports 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.800 the quantum suicide thought experiment, like perfectly, Well, that's that 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:29.840 is what um, that's that's what whoever came up with 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:34.360 to explain why a particle, a photon could be both 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:39.120 a wave and a particle, right right. The unsettling part 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:43.760 of this is with Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, we're in charge, 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:49.320 we look at a quantum particle, we affect it. Right. 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:54.120 That was with who's Heisenberg heisenbergriniple, with um with the 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:58.360 many world's interpretation, we're just observers, right, Yeah, parallel universe 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.160 is happening all over the place. So let's say that 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.320 you you. Let's say I was the guy who decided 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:06.000 I wanted to find out if there was such a 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:08.600 thing as quantum immortality, that I could just sit there 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.320 with the gun and actually carry out this thought experiment 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:16.160 and and see right, and consider this, It's entirely possible 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:20.960 that if somebody did do this, they could live forever 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:25.800 and only they would know. You know why, because as 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.120 an observer, under the many worlds interpretation, you're just along 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:30.960 for the ride. I sort of have to accept that, 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.800 don't you If you support this theory, well, yeah, that's 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:36.560 the basis of it. So let's say that I was 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:38.400 the guy who sat down in front of this gun 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.480 and started pressing the button right, and you're sitting there 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:45.080 watching me, you know, maybe drinking a roop here um, 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:49.560 waiting for that fire. Yeah, eventually it would happen because 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:52.360 you're not doing anything. You're not making a decision. I'm 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:54.960 making the decision. You're an observer, a bystander to my 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:58.160 decision of pressing the button right. Isn't that where predictability 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:02.720 comes in? So eventually, just based on the chances of 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:06.919 a coin toss, you're going to be witnessed to that 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:11.560 that cork being measured, running counterclockwise and the gun going 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.960 off and me dying, and after that, the universe can't 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.160 possibly split anymore because you're not making the decision. I'm 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.200 making the decision to press the button. While I'm dead, 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:23.320 I can't make the decision to press the button anymore. 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:27.399 So then the universe has stopped splitting for you. So 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.200 that's that's pretty unsettling, because we have no control whatsoever 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:37.000 over anything. I mean, if I would chalk it up 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.480 to free will, whether or not I'm I'm taking a 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:42.040 sip of that coffee. But free will doesn't exist if 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.920 the universe is splitting into two to accommodate every possible outcome, 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:50.199 and just imagine it splitting into more than two. What 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.320 if there's more than one outcome for a decision like 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:57.959 many worlds? Okay, right, So this is the many worlds interpretation, 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.240 and that's how Quantum's Suicide basically proves it. By the 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:07.120 by saying if somebody sat down and did this, they 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:11.320 would become immortal. It shows that the many worlds interpretation 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:15.040 is theoretically possible, which is what it seeks to do, right, right, 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:16.560 And that's sort of the new kid on the block 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:20.240 right when it comes to explaining this. Yes, not like 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:25.360 the za Copenhagen interpretation. Yeah, well let's let's take it. 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:28.360 Let's take it, Chuck. Well, that's the one that's been 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:30.600 accepted and still is in a lot of circles, but 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:32.800 the one that had been accepted for like the last 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:35.680 century basically. And you pointed out too that this whole 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.840 thing is really only about a century old or so. Yeah. 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.320 I believe it was Max Plank in nineteen hundred, which 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:45.359 is basically founded the field of quantum fiss which is 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.000 very new on a you know, on that scale. Newton 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.119 came up with his stuff in the eighteenth century. So 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.920 this is the I guess, the newest field of physics. Right. 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.639 So the Copenhagen interpretation, Josh, is uh Neil's Bore in 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.800 the Night in the actually in nine and it says 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.520 that a quantum particle doesn't exist in one or another, 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:10.040 but it exists in all states, all at the same time, right. 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.679 And the state of existing in all possible states at 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:17.160 once is called coherent superposition or just superposition, right, right, 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:20.040 And the total of all those is the wave function. Right. 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:22.240 So remember I said this is like, this is like 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.639 a running, walking, and swimming all at the same time. 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:29.560 So the state of running, walking, and swimming all at 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:32.760 the same time is called the superposition. And then being 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:37.400 able to run, walk, and swim as possible states that's 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.840 the wave function that makes you an iron man. It does, 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:44.359 but it makes you like the optimal iron maid. Right, 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.040 you just finished the race immediately. Yeah, everyone else is 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.080 finished with the running part and you're like dripping wet 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:54.240 with your bike on your shoulder. Nice. Uh so bor um, 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:59.400 he he proved this, this whole shrouding yours cat thing, 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:03.119 this is this is a little funny. And Schrodinger supposedly 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.600 did design this to sort of show how silly it was, right, 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:10.159 he he did. But at the same time he was 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:13.280 also I mean, he was a serious quantum physicist and 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.760 he was a huge rival of Um Heisenberg actually, and 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:21.280 Heisenberg said Schrodinger's ideas were crap. Yeah, is that the 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:24.120 word he used? And um and I think I can't 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.360 remember what Schrodinger had to say about Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:31.480 but um, they didn't like each other all right, So 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:34.679 Schrodinger's box, can we kind of describe this? Yeah? And 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:38.000 and if you didn't get this, this is to the 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:43.320 Copenhagen interpretation, what quantum suicide is to the many worlds interpretations. 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:47.720 Experiment designed to theoretically prove that it's possible. Okay, people 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:50.000 are like, can't you just talk about ticks being on 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:55.600 another regions? So much easier? All right, Schrodinger's cat, And 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:57.920 this is I should point out, this is a theoretical experiment. 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:02.000 He didn't really do this, right, he could, well, sure 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:03.880 he could have. So what he did was he got 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.600 a box that you can't see into, which is very key, 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:09.520 as you'll find out, he put a cat in there. Theoretically, 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:12.960 he put some radioactive material in there, and then he 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.359 put a Geiger counter in there and like a little 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:18.960 device that would you know, if the radioactive material leaks out, 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:22.240 it would smash this poison in there, and it would 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:26.600 kill the cat. Right. If the Geiger encounter sensed radioactive decay, 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:29.480 it would trigger this hammer that smashes the poison vial, 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:32.119 killing the right. But that's just a clever way of 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:34.639 setting this up. It's really not important what he did 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:37.199 being clever, well it was, it was very good. But 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:39.680 the point is he did it within like an hour 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:42.360 or so, so where it's still possible, like the cat 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:44.600 didn't starve to death. The cat could either be alive 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:46.879 or the cat could be dead. You don't know because 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:49.760 the cat is sealed inside this box. So in theory, 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:53.159 the cat is both alive and dead, right. And the 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.640 other part about that hour is that he determined, say, 0:21:56.680 --> 0:22:00.440 like over an hour, there was a chance that the 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:03.800 the radioactive material would decay or wouldn't decay, so the 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:07.520 Geiger counter of detecting it. And this is where I 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:10.760 have a big problem with all this stuff. Yeah, well 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:12.479 it's like you pointed out in the article too, and 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:14.280 that's what made me think of it, the tree falling 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:16.480 in the woods. Would you really hear it? I have 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:18.680 hated that since I was a little kid. I think 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:20.400 it has to do with how your brain is wired. 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.880 Because whether or not the cat is a the cat 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:27.359 is alive or dead. Just because you don't know the 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:31.159 answer doesn't mean it's both. Well that's to me as 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:36.080 an English major music musician type. You know in this though, 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:39.360 So the cats, the cat being alive or the cat 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:42.560 being dead, right, that's its wave function. Those are the 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:47.159 possible outcomes. And since the box is sealed off. Like 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:49.040 you said, it's very important. You can't see in it, 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:53.200 you can't detect anything in it. Um the cat is 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:57.920 the cats in a superposition of both life and death. Yeah. 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:02.320 The point is is we what what Schrodinger was saying 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:05.520 in this and how it how it supports the Copenhagen 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:11.720 interpretation and is actually more like um the Heisenberg's uncertainty 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:15.360 principle than Schrodinger would have liked to admit. Um, we 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:20.800 the observer force the outcome. Okay, by observing it. We 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:23.520 open up the box and the cats either alive and 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:26.080 we see that the cats alive, or we open up 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:27.600 the box and the cats dead and we see the 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:32.560 cats dead. The point of Nils Boers Copenhagen interpretation is 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:36.960 so these things exist in their superposition, and when we 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:40.840 observe them, we force them into basically a choice. We 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:45.480 collapse their wave function, we collapse their superposition, and now 0:23:45.760 --> 0:23:49.280 they're a live cat or it's a dead cat. But 0:23:49.400 --> 0:23:53.119 it's because we observed and until we observed there in 0:23:53.200 --> 0:23:56.720 this state of all states at once. It's that's just 0:23:56.840 --> 0:23:58.639 where I and like I said, it has it. It's 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:00.440 got to have something to do with your brain because 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:03.240 my brother was a big math guy and he used 0:24:03.240 --> 0:24:06.200 to tutor me some and he could never understand how 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:09.320 I didn't get math, just like I don't understand how 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:12.320 they get physics on that level. But I don't understand 0:24:12.320 --> 0:24:15.800