1 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:10,520 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, I have a question for you that you 2 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:14,320 Speaker 1: might not like. Oh, what is it? It's about aliens, 3 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:17,919 Speaker 1: your favorite topic. I love it already. What is it? Okay? So, 4 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:22,160 Speaker 1: if we can't send messages faster than light, right, all 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:27,440 Speaker 1: the other planets are light years away, wouldn't any communication 6 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:32,600 Speaker 1: or messages exchanged with aliens take years or decades? Ah, 7 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:51,920 Speaker 1: you're right, I don't like that question. Hi. I'm or Hamming, 8 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:55,920 Speaker 1: cartoonists and the creator of PhD comics. Hi. I'm Daniel. 9 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: I'm a particle physicist and the co author of our 10 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 1: book We Have No Idea, a guide to the Unknown 11 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:05,039 Speaker 1: Universe that tells you all the things we don't know 12 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:07,800 Speaker 1: about the universe. Yeah. It's a great book, which also 13 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:11,520 Speaker 1: functions as a nice quantum banana stand or in anything 14 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:14,280 Speaker 1: stand really, once you're done reading it. It's multi purpose. 15 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:16,640 Speaker 1: You could buy thousands of copies and build a house 16 00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:18,680 Speaker 1: out of them. But welcome to our podcast, Daniel and 17 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:21,959 Speaker 1: Jorge Explain the Universe, a production of My Heart Radio 18 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:25,119 Speaker 1: in which we try to find amazing and crazy and 19 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:28,240 Speaker 1: fascinating things about our universe and explain them to you. 20 00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:30,240 Speaker 1: We want to take you to the cutting edge of 21 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:32,679 Speaker 1: science and break it down so that you have a 22 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:35,760 Speaker 1: working understanding of it. Science is not something meant just 23 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:38,480 Speaker 1: for a few people in an ivory tower. Sciences by 24 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:41,840 Speaker 1: the people of the people and for the people. That's right. 25 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:45,360 Speaker 1: It's a constitutional right to know your science and to 26 00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:48,280 Speaker 1: have physicists explained it to you. That's right. It doesn't 27 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:52,000 Speaker 1: make it democratic, but it should be accessible. Do you 28 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:56,800 Speaker 1: think is physics governed by democratic principles? Daniel? Maybe awesome 29 00:01:56,840 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 1: if we could change the laws of the universe by 30 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,080 Speaker 1: voting on it, like he who wants to have faster 31 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:03,320 Speaker 1: and light travel me, and we all vote on it, 32 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:05,480 Speaker 1: and then it's possible. That would be pretty awesome, And 33 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:07,960 Speaker 1: the universe has to follow the rules. Hey, if it's 34 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:10,639 Speaker 1: a democracy, right, then we could like amend the laws 35 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:13,320 Speaker 1: of physics. Right well, if if our government is any 36 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:17,080 Speaker 1: indication that I think would be in deep trouble, I 37 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:19,360 Speaker 1: think Mitch McConnell would stand in the way of any 38 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:22,799 Speaker 1: uh any revolution we want in the laws of physics. Yeah, 39 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:26,320 Speaker 1: I think would probably splinter into different universes. That's right. 40 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:29,200 Speaker 1: I would have people arguing for these set of laws 41 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:31,400 Speaker 1: and other people saying no, we want this to be possible. 42 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:34,480 Speaker 1: Maybe we should not wish to have that kind of power. Yeah, yeah, 43 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:37,560 Speaker 1: let's take to the undemocratic universe in which we actually 44 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:42,959 Speaker 1: live in the dictatorial um quantum universe. That's right. So yeah, 45 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:46,600 Speaker 1: so today on the program, we'll be talking about a 46 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:49,680 Speaker 1: problem that a lot of people see if we ever 47 00:02:49,880 --> 00:02:53,799 Speaker 1: do find other life in the universe, right, Yeah, there 48 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 1: are certain things about the laws of physics which are 49 00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:00,680 Speaker 1: fascinating but also frustrating that put limits on us. And 50 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:03,480 Speaker 1: you know, if we did find aliens, even in one 51 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: of the nearby stars that are light years and light 52 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:09,079 Speaker 1: years away, it would be difficult to have a conversation 53 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:12,840 Speaker 1: with them because light or anything else takes years to 54 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:15,360 Speaker 1: get there in years to get back. Yeah, it would 55 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:17,720 Speaker 1: be a really awkward conversation. Right, You'd be like, hey, 56 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:20,520 Speaker 1: how's it going, and then you have to wait twenty 57 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:24,920 Speaker 1: years or more maybe to get an answer that says 58 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:29,359 Speaker 1: pretty good you they have like a revolution since then, 59 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:32,080 Speaker 1: or have evolved into something else or whatever. How do 60 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:35,640 Speaker 1: you have a conversation? Yeah, you might not even be alive, right, Like, 61 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:38,680 Speaker 1: if we talked, we're trying to talk to another civilization 62 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: that's a hundred light years away, it would take two 63 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:44,680 Speaker 1: hundred years to get a response, just to get a response, 64 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:47,680 Speaker 1: and then imagine what that conversation would be like. You know, 65 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:50,360 Speaker 1: the first statements of that conversation would be like, huh, 66 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:52,960 Speaker 1: what were you? Wait? Can you hear me? Is this 67 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:55,440 Speaker 1: being on? You know that's a thousand years right there, 68 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:58,600 Speaker 1: you know, just to decode our language to right? Would 69 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:00,720 Speaker 1: it would be kind of awkward? Would be like talking 70 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:02,400 Speaker 1: to my nine year old right like, hey, can you 71 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:05,240 Speaker 1: pick up your shoes? Hey? Can you pick up your shoes? 72 00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:09,400 Speaker 1: Twenty years later? Would be like what it would be 73 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:11,800 Speaker 1: like having any video conferencing meeting. You know, the first 74 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 1: ten minutes of every video conferencing meeting between humans who 75 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 1: speak the same language, use the same technology. It's still 76 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:20,520 Speaker 1: I can't hear you? What what was that? No, this 77 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:25,919 Speaker 1: is not working, like the ultimate nightmare conference call, wouldn't it? 78 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:29,040 Speaker 1: We would waste years just to say you're on speaker 79 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: phone or you're muted, or sorry I thought I was muted, 80 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:36,480 Speaker 1: or hey, you're in the bathroom and you're not muted, right, 81 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:39,279 Speaker 1: Although actually I would like to hear what it's as 82 00:04:39,279 --> 00:04:41,839 Speaker 1: sound like when the alien goes to the bathroom. Oh really, 83 00:04:41,880 --> 00:04:46,520 Speaker 1: that would be your opening question. No, but if that's 84 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:49,159 Speaker 1: if that audio was just delivered to me somehow, Yeah, 85 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:51,120 Speaker 1: I would like to hear that. That would be fascinating. 86 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:53,200 Speaker 1: What if that's the only thing we ever learned about 87 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:55,760 Speaker 1: aliens is that they accidentally but dialed us when they 88 00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:57,480 Speaker 1: were in the bathroom and we got to hear it. 89 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:01,920 Speaker 1: I see you, assuming they have a butt, or they 90 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,160 Speaker 1: might only they have m I'd have multiple buds. You 91 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:06,760 Speaker 1: don't know. So many questions could be answered by that 92 00:05:06,839 --> 00:05:09,839 Speaker 1: accidental phone call. Yeah, you might get like two separate 93 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:14,000 Speaker 1: calls on your phone. But hey, your left button your right, 94 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:16,960 Speaker 1: but are both calling me? I gotta go? And maybe 95 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:21,479 Speaker 1: they must have a whole different call waiting system depending 96 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:23,320 Speaker 1: on the number of butts they have. But you know, 97 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:25,800 Speaker 1: this is a fun topic to explore, But I read 98 00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:28,200 Speaker 1: a lot of science fiction, and in science fiction they 99 00:05:28,279 --> 00:05:31,159 Speaker 1: often have this same problem. Like, let's say it's a 100 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:33,560 Speaker 1: million years in the future and humans have colonized the 101 00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:36,280 Speaker 1: galaxy and have a galaxy spanning empire. How do you 102 00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:39,520 Speaker 1: even govern an empire if it takes a thousand years 103 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:41,240 Speaker 1: to send a message from one side of it to 104 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:43,960 Speaker 1: the other, Right, Like, if you think about it. One 105 00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:46,599 Speaker 1: fact that always blows my mind is that the United States, 106 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:51,400 Speaker 1: it's only like two fifty years old or less. So 107 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:56,599 Speaker 1: imagine having a conversation in between the declaration of independence 108 00:05:56,720 --> 00:06:00,800 Speaker 1: and now it's a whole different country. Absolutely, it's a 109 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:03,160 Speaker 1: whole different country. And I think there's also something interesting there. 110 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:06,839 Speaker 1: I think something about the size of nations was determined 111 00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:11,279 Speaker 1: basically by the speed of information transit at the time 112 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:14,120 Speaker 1: that you know, nation states came to be. And the 113 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:17,640 Speaker 1: reason we don't have globe spanning empires might also be 114 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:21,560 Speaker 1: because we didn't have instantaneous communication until fairly recently. Oh, 115 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:24,080 Speaker 1: I see, like your furthest calling. You could be like, hey, 116 00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:27,360 Speaker 1: I am peace out, I'm leaving, and by the time 117 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:30,039 Speaker 1: you get the message and say no way, dude, they're gone. 118 00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:33,680 Speaker 1: Tighter coordination between the UK and the American colonies might 119 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:37,280 Speaker 1: have prevented the American Revolution, right, and England could still 120 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:41,520 Speaker 1: be a globe spanning empire anyway. That's um ridiculous speculation 121 00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:44,960 Speaker 1: on a topic I have no expertise in. But that's 122 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:47,640 Speaker 1: a that's a different topic. That's uh. Dano and j 123 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:53,200 Speaker 1: confuse History another production of I Heart Radio. That's right, 124 00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:55,360 Speaker 1: but I think this is a really interesting one. And 125 00:06:55,839 --> 00:06:58,880 Speaker 1: in those books and science fiction novels, they often try 126 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:02,200 Speaker 1: to avoid this problem them by inventing some way for 127 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:04,760 Speaker 1: these people to communicate faster than light. They have some 128 00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:09,080 Speaker 1: clever ways, some telephone that communicates instantly from galaxy to 129 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:12,280 Speaker 1: galaxy or even inside the galaxy's so that they can 130 00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:15,560 Speaker 1: talk to their subjects and their political connections and a 131 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:18,560 Speaker 1: reasonable time, right, so that each page of the science 132 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 1: fiction story, it doesn't go two hundred years later or 133 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:26,680 Speaker 1: it's like three next thing, Bob's great grant. If you 134 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:31,360 Speaker 1: answered the phone, it says, what who's Who's this phone? 135 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:34,880 Speaker 1: It wouldnt be a fun thing to get in the 136 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:37,200 Speaker 1: wheel from your grandpa, Like, hey, I put a call 137 00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:40,800 Speaker 1: into some aliens. If you they call back. This is 138 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:45,800 Speaker 1: what I wanted to know. Here's the conversation tree I started. Yeah, exactly, 139 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:49,240 Speaker 1: but yeah, it's it's a big problem with the idea 140 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:51,640 Speaker 1: of a connected universe. I think, right, like you can 141 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:56,080 Speaker 1: imagine a galactic empire or you know, just getting to 142 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:58,280 Speaker 1: know our neighbors. It would be a problem. It would 143 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:00,560 Speaker 1: be a problem. And in a lot of these science 144 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:03,600 Speaker 1: fiction novels and they try to solve this problem by 145 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:06,920 Speaker 1: sort of painting over it with a magic phrase and said, well, 146 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:09,480 Speaker 1: you know, maybe scientists in the future have figured out 147 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 1: where to use. Here, I'm doing air quotes quantum entanglement, 148 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:15,280 Speaker 1: and that just sort of solves the problem. That's a 149 00:08:15,320 --> 00:08:19,120 Speaker 1: popular solution in science fiction to this problem. Yes, exactly, 150 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:23,160 Speaker 1: quantum entanglement. Quantum entanglement sort of solves the problem of 151 00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:26,480 Speaker 1: faster and light communication. All right, So then today we're 152 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:35,079 Speaker 1: going to answer the question can we use quantum entanglement 153 00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:38,559 Speaker 1: to send messages faster than light? Because I would love 154 00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:40,559 Speaker 1: to talk to the aliens more rapidly. I would love 155 00:08:40,640 --> 00:08:43,679 Speaker 1: to download their physics library and not have to take 156 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:46,400 Speaker 1: a billion years. And so I want this to be true. 157 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,120 Speaker 1: I want us to be able to send messages fast 158 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,240 Speaker 1: and like using quantum entanglement or anything. Well, I think, 159 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:54,360 Speaker 1: like any any phrase in science fiction, just put the 160 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: word quantum in it, and it sounds both magical and plausible. 161 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:00,520 Speaker 1: Do you think that's going to be true for ever? Like, 162 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:04,040 Speaker 1: won't that trope get tired? Won't people to be like yawn? Quantum? 163 00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:05,760 Speaker 1: The new thing is I don't know what is the 164 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:09,679 Speaker 1: new thing? Dark matter, dark quantum, nous dark matter. Oh 165 00:09:09,679 --> 00:09:11,920 Speaker 1: my gosh, you're right, and there is even that novel. 166 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:15,280 Speaker 1: Have you read that novel called dark Matter by Blake Crouch? No, 167 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:18,040 Speaker 1: I haven't, very popular. I think was the best seller. 168 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:21,360 Speaker 1: It's actually about quantum mechanics. But the title of it 169 00:09:21,400 --> 00:09:23,560 Speaker 1: is dark Matter, which is very confusing and has nothing 170 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:25,800 Speaker 1: to do with dark matter except I think that dark 171 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:28,839 Speaker 1: matter is a sexy, buzz worded physics that they were 172 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:31,760 Speaker 1: there him or his agent or his publishing house we're 173 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:33,720 Speaker 1: trying to latch onto. Well there you go. That should 174 00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:38,600 Speaker 1: be the title of our next book, dark Quantum, Dark Quantum, Yeah, exactly. 175 00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:40,840 Speaker 1: Maybe we can use dark matter for faster than light 176 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:50,560 Speaker 1: communication Quantum after hours cinemas dark Matterez. Well, anyways, um, Yeah, 177 00:09:50,600 --> 00:09:53,320 Speaker 1: the idea is like in science fiction, can we actually 178 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:57,880 Speaker 1: use quantum, this idea of quantum entanglement to send messages 179 00:09:57,960 --> 00:10:01,520 Speaker 1: faster than light? And so, as usual, we were wondering 180 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:04,480 Speaker 1: if anyone had even heard of flantum entanglement or how 181 00:10:04,559 --> 00:10:08,080 Speaker 1: to pronounce it, or whether it could it could even 182 00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:11,679 Speaker 1: be used to send messages faster than light. So, as usual, 183 00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:13,960 Speaker 1: I walked around the campus have you see Irvine? And 184 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:16,640 Speaker 1: I was grateful as always that they were willing to 185 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:20,160 Speaker 1: answer a random question about a random topic. And so, 186 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,160 Speaker 1: before you hear these answers, think to yourself, do you 187 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:26,360 Speaker 1: think quantum entanglement can be used to send messages across 188 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:29,320 Speaker 1: the universe faster than the speed of light? Here's what 189 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:31,480 Speaker 1: people had to say. I don't know enough to answer 190 00:10:31,559 --> 00:10:35,200 Speaker 1: that question. I don't know now, I have not I 191 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:39,000 Speaker 1: don't know, but I hope he can. I'm not sorry, No, 192 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:41,520 Speaker 1: I'm not I do know what that is to do. Yeah, 193 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:43,120 Speaker 1: do you think it can be used to send messages 194 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:45,280 Speaker 1: faster than the speed of light? That is correct? Do 195 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:47,240 Speaker 1: you think you can? So what do you think of 196 00:10:47,240 --> 00:10:50,000 Speaker 1: those answers? Jorge? All right, Well, I think they're probably 197 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:53,800 Speaker 1: pretty common answers. And I don't think up until a 198 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:55,880 Speaker 1: couple of years ago, I would have known what quantum 199 00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:58,600 Speaker 1: entanglement was. Yeah, a lot of people have never heard 200 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:01,360 Speaker 1: of it. Um though, why guy was like, Oh, yeah, 201 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:08,760 Speaker 1: that's in this guy's company. This Wow? What does he 202 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:12,640 Speaker 1: know that we don't know? I don't know. I didn't 203 00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:14,560 Speaker 1: spend it time to dig into it with him. Was 204 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:18,160 Speaker 1: he an alien? Possibly? Probably? Oh my gosh, I met 205 00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:20,920 Speaker 1: an alien. I didn't even realize it. After rewind back 206 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:25,000 Speaker 1: in time, remember what that person looked like if you 207 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:29,520 Speaker 1: can rewind back in time, Daniel, that's what do you know? 208 00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:32,640 Speaker 1: I just used my quantum tango particles, right, that's everbody 209 00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:38,440 Speaker 1: science fiction problems, dark quantum phone, quantum foam perfect. I 210 00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:41,439 Speaker 1: think that is the perfect blend of buzzwords right there. 211 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:44,280 Speaker 1: That solves any problem. There you go. I'm gonna suggest 212 00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:46,000 Speaker 1: that to my students next time, the every research problem. 213 00:11:46,120 --> 00:11:48,839 Speaker 1: Have you tried dark quantum foam. Many people haven't even 214 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:51,679 Speaker 1: heard of quantum entanglement, much less the idea of using 215 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:54,320 Speaker 1: it to talk over long distances. It's a topic that's 216 00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:56,719 Speaker 1: actually decades old, but I think only recently has it 217 00:11:56,920 --> 00:12:00,439 Speaker 1: entered any sort of the edges of the cultural ZiT guy, well, 218 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:02,679 Speaker 1: I think I remember a couple of a year or 219 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:04,720 Speaker 1: two ago there was a big news item saying that 220 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:09,240 Speaker 1: um scientists had finally teleported something and they use quantum 221 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:13,160 Speaker 1: entanglement it. Yeah, there was some very misleading science headlines 222 00:12:13,200 --> 00:12:17,880 Speaker 1: about how scientists teleported something into space. But yeah, they 223 00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:22,480 Speaker 1: hadn't actually leading headlines misleading science headlines. No, that was 224 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:25,079 Speaker 1: I wanted you to click on it. That's sweet. Yeah, 225 00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:27,040 Speaker 1: they had used quantum entanglement. And we did a whole 226 00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:31,440 Speaker 1: episode actually about teleportation whether it's possible. And there is 227 00:12:31,679 --> 00:12:35,679 Speaker 1: one aspect of teleportation which is possible, which is teleporting 228 00:12:35,679 --> 00:12:38,160 Speaker 1: a quantum state. That is saying, here, we have some 229 00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:41,600 Speaker 1: particles and a quantum arrangement over here. Can we make 230 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:44,960 Speaker 1: other particles not the same particles, other particles had the 231 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:48,240 Speaker 1: same state over there. It's sort of like, uh, you know, 232 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:51,840 Speaker 1: um copying something. It's like emailing something to somebody else, 233 00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:55,120 Speaker 1: but doing emailing a quantum state, and to do that 234 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:58,680 Speaker 1: you do need to have quantum entanglement. Yes, quantum factsing. 235 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:01,800 Speaker 1: That is not a phrase anybody has ever said out 236 00:13:01,800 --> 00:13:05,199 Speaker 1: loud before. I think right, and I lay my stake 237 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:08,920 Speaker 1: on it. Yes, Yeah, they didn't actually move anything to space. 238 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:12,760 Speaker 1: People think when they hear teleportation that you have disappeared 239 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:15,120 Speaker 1: some that or somewhere and reappeared it somewhere else. That's 240 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,040 Speaker 1: the common understanding of teleportation, which is why the headlines 241 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:21,480 Speaker 1: for that article were so misleading. Um. But they did 242 00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:24,680 Speaker 1: use quantum entanglement in that experiment. Quantum entanglement is a 243 00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:28,240 Speaker 1: real thing. It can be used to do some interesting science. Right, 244 00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:31,760 Speaker 1: it can be used to quantum facts things, for example, 245 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:35,280 Speaker 1: which is fascinating and useful, but not faster than the 246 00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:37,160 Speaker 1: speed of light in that case. But yeah, I think 247 00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:39,160 Speaker 1: I think that would be a more better name for it, 248 00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:43,080 Speaker 1: quantum faccing, because it's not really teleporting. It's more like faccing. Yes, exactly, 249 00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:45,480 Speaker 1: that is quantum facting, and it's it's it's sort of 250 00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:47,959 Speaker 1: related to this idea of using it to communicate faster 251 00:13:48,040 --> 00:13:51,480 Speaker 1: than light. Or is that totally different than quantum teleportation? No, 252 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:55,880 Speaker 1: it's different. I mean the idea of quantum entanglement is 253 00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:58,720 Speaker 1: to have two things that are far apart, but they 254 00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:01,960 Speaker 1: have some connection to each other, and can you use 255 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:04,920 Speaker 1: that to send some information? And you can use it 256 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:07,040 Speaker 1: to send some information, but the question is can you 257 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:09,319 Speaker 1: use to send information faster than the speed of light? 258 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:11,880 Speaker 1: But maybe before we dig into that, we should talk 259 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:14,160 Speaker 1: about what quantum entanglement is, so everybody has a clear 260 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:17,679 Speaker 1: sense for what that means. Yeah, let's talk about quantum entanglement. Um, 261 00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:20,080 Speaker 1: So what what is quantum entanglement? I feel like I 262 00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:24,320 Speaker 1: know the word quantum sort of which means magic, and 263 00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:27,720 Speaker 1: entanglement means that two things are kind of like intertwined 264 00:14:27,880 --> 00:14:30,760 Speaker 1: or um, you know, kind of like one of them 265 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:32,960 Speaker 1: depends on the other. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. 266 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:35,800 Speaker 1: Entanglement means that this sort of a constraint on the pair. 267 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:38,320 Speaker 1: So I think it's simplest if you think about just 268 00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:40,960 Speaker 1: two particles. Now it can apply to other things, and 269 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:44,280 Speaker 1: just particles that can apply to quantum fields of quantum systems. 270 00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:46,680 Speaker 1: Just to have a visual thing to hang our our 271 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:49,680 Speaker 1: mental hats on, let's talk about, for example, two electrons. 272 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:52,520 Speaker 1: And electrons we know have these weird quantum states, like 273 00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:54,640 Speaker 1: they can be spin up or they can be spinned down. 274 00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:58,320 Speaker 1: And for an individual electron, before you've looked at it, 275 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:00,720 Speaker 1: it could be either spin up or down, and sort 276 00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:03,480 Speaker 1: of like the Shorteninger's cat in the box, until you 277 00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:06,120 Speaker 1: ask the electron, are you spin up or down? It's 278 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:08,800 Speaker 1: sort of both. It's not determined it's fifty fifty one 279 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:11,240 Speaker 1: or the other until you like poke it right, until 280 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:14,880 Speaker 1: you ask the electron whether it's spinning over the right. 281 00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:17,000 Speaker 1: And we did a whole episode on quantum spin. How 282 00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:19,000 Speaker 1: you can measure an electron spin. You pass it through 283 00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:21,280 Speaker 1: a magnet and either goes left or goes right and 284 00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:24,080 Speaker 1: that's how you're measuring it. You require it to make 285 00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:26,120 Speaker 1: a decision about whether it's up or down so that 286 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:28,160 Speaker 1: it can interact with an experiment you've built in a 287 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:31,320 Speaker 1: certain way. And that's useful for thinking about individual electron. 288 00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:35,120 Speaker 1: A quantum entanglement is about pairs of electrons because sometimes 289 00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:38,040 Speaker 1: you can arrange these electrons in a special way so 290 00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:40,840 Speaker 1: that they're not independent. They have a constraint on them, 291 00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:43,680 Speaker 1: like they have their spins have to be opposite. For example, 292 00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:45,800 Speaker 1: if one is up, the other one has to be down. 293 00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:49,880 Speaker 1: Like you put a rule that um says that they 294 00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:52,920 Speaker 1: they're not totally independent. Yeah, Like if you sort of 295 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:55,080 Speaker 1: two dies, they can be whatever they want to be 296 00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:57,520 Speaker 1: each one, But if you put a constraint on them, 297 00:15:57,560 --> 00:15:59,640 Speaker 1: saying they both have to add up to seven, then 298 00:15:59,680 --> 00:16:03,000 Speaker 1: that that's a constraint between two things exactly. Because quantum 299 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:05,479 Speaker 1: mechanics has a lot of weirdness and a lot of fuzziness, 300 00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:08,360 Speaker 1: but there are some rules even quantum mechanics can't break, 301 00:16:08,680 --> 00:16:12,480 Speaker 1: like conservation of momentum, and spin is a kind of momentum. 302 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:16,200 Speaker 1: And so if these electrons, for example, came from another particle, 303 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:20,720 Speaker 1: say a photon generated an electron and opositron. That's that 304 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:24,760 Speaker 1: photon has an overall spin zero for example, then the electron, 305 00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:26,200 Speaker 1: if one of them has spin up, the other one 306 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:29,640 Speaker 1: has to be spinned down in order to conserve overall momentum. 307 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:31,960 Speaker 1: There's spins have to add up to zero, which is 308 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:34,720 Speaker 1: the same original amount of spin that the photon had. 309 00:16:34,880 --> 00:16:36,880 Speaker 1: So that's how you do it physically. That's how you 310 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:40,240 Speaker 1: apply a constraint to two electrons to say, you can't 311 00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:42,000 Speaker 1: both be up and you can't both be down. If 312 00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:43,520 Speaker 1: one of you is up, the other one has to 313 00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:46,720 Speaker 1: be down. So you maintain your compliance with this other 314 00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:49,080 Speaker 1: law of physics, right, and you can set that rule 315 00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:50,640 Speaker 1: to whatever you want to be. Like, you could also 316 00:16:50,640 --> 00:16:52,320 Speaker 1: say they both have to be up, or they both 317 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:54,360 Speaker 1: have to be down, or they can't both be the 318 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:57,000 Speaker 1: same thing. It's just kind of like like a rule. Right. Yeah, 319 00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,520 Speaker 1: if your photon has spin one in a certain direction, 320 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:02,040 Speaker 1: then you know that both electrons have to be spin up. 321 00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:05,000 Speaker 1: And if it has been um minus one, which is 322 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:07,080 Speaker 1: the same it's been one of the other direction, then yeah, 323 00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:10,119 Speaker 1: the same thing applies. But it's most interesting when this 324 00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:12,720 Speaker 1: constraint adds up to zero, because then each electron can 325 00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:15,960 Speaker 1: be up or down, and it's the combination of the 326 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:18,119 Speaker 1: two that has the constraint, not the individual one. So 327 00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:20,320 Speaker 1: each one is free to be up or down. But 328 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:21,679 Speaker 1: if as soon as you know that one is up, 329 00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:23,600 Speaker 1: the other one has to be down. Okay. So that's 330 00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:26,680 Speaker 1: the basic idea of entanglement. It's like two particles that 331 00:17:26,800 --> 00:17:29,560 Speaker 1: have some kind of they're both quantum, so they're both 332 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:33,640 Speaker 1: weird and fuzzy, but there's some sort of constraint between them, 333 00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:38,399 Speaker 1: some sort of rule that says that that when you 334 00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:41,320 Speaker 1: open those two electrons, they need to follow certain rules. 335 00:17:41,359 --> 00:17:43,399 Speaker 1: That's right, and the magic there is what happens if 336 00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:46,560 Speaker 1: you open just one electron, so electron A and electron B. 337 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:48,879 Speaker 1: So you open the box electron A, you interact with it, 338 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:51,439 Speaker 1: you measure it's been it's been up. Now you know 339 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:54,800 Speaker 1: something about electron B. Right, you've measured something about electron 340 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:58,199 Speaker 1: A and learn something about electron B. That constraint allows 341 00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:01,600 Speaker 1: you to extrappolate your knowledge of the first electron onto 342 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:04,600 Speaker 1: the second one. That's the magic, because the two have 343 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:08,760 Speaker 1: this constraint, and that happens sort of instantaneously. As soon 344 00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:11,359 Speaker 1: as you measure it on one, you know something about 345 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:14,639 Speaker 1: the other one, even if in the meantime you've taken 346 00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:17,959 Speaker 1: that other electron and moved it a light year away. 347 00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:20,640 Speaker 1: So that's where the communication part comes in, Right, that's 348 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:23,480 Speaker 1: where the sort of magic faster than light tempting thing 349 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:26,560 Speaker 1: comes in. You take these two electrons, they're quantum entangled, 350 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:30,240 Speaker 1: you move them really far apart without breaking the entanglement somehow, 351 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:33,359 Speaker 1: and then when you measure something about one electron, you 352 00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:36,479 Speaker 1: learn something about something really really far away, and you've 353 00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:39,880 Speaker 1: learned something faster than light can travel. All right, well, 354 00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:42,520 Speaker 1: let's get into the details here a little bit more, 355 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:45,760 Speaker 1: and how this was actually one of Einstein's ideas, right, 356 00:18:46,119 --> 00:18:49,040 Speaker 1: it was sort of Einstein's big backfire. So let's get 357 00:18:49,040 --> 00:19:04,040 Speaker 1: into it. But first let's take a quick break. All right, 358 00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:06,800 Speaker 1: we're talking about quantum entanglement and how we could use 359 00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:10,959 Speaker 1: that to talk to aliens right faster than like that's right. 360 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:14,520 Speaker 1: We're hoping their aliens, and we're hoping we could develop 361 00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:17,800 Speaker 1: this technology based on quantum entanglement to send the messages 362 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:21,800 Speaker 1: that aren't accidental toilet butt dials, right, using my quantum facts, 363 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:25,239 Speaker 1: which I just invented ten minutes ago. Okay, so let 364 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:27,400 Speaker 1: me see if I got this straight. Didea between quantum 365 00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:31,440 Speaker 1: entanglement is that you take two electrons or two particles 366 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:34,280 Speaker 1: that are quantum, and you you you mix them up 367 00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:37,119 Speaker 1: so that there's some kind of rule between them, so 368 00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:39,919 Speaker 1: that then if you separate them and you open one 369 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:43,159 Speaker 1: of them, you know something about the other, even if 370 00:19:43,240 --> 00:19:47,040 Speaker 1: it's really far away. Precisely, you've learned something about something 371 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:50,320 Speaker 1: far away faster than light could get there, right you. 372 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:52,080 Speaker 1: If you if you want to know what is the 373 00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:54,959 Speaker 1: state of electron B, rather than going there and measuring 374 00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:58,200 Speaker 1: it coming back, you can do it instantaneously by measuring 375 00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:00,360 Speaker 1: electron A, and that tells you something a about what's 376 00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:03,480 Speaker 1: happening far away. And normally in this universe, to learn 377 00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:07,119 Speaker 1: something about an object that's really far away takes time. 378 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:08,960 Speaker 1: If you want to know what's happening in the star 379 00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:11,000 Speaker 1: a light year away, you need to wait a year 380 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:13,439 Speaker 1: for that light to get here. So this seems like 381 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:16,399 Speaker 1: a tempting way to learn things, to about things that 382 00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:18,920 Speaker 1: are far away, and maybe even to send information. That's 383 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:21,040 Speaker 1: sort of the idea. It's made the picture a little 384 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:23,800 Speaker 1: bit maybe, Like so I take two electrons and let's 385 00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:25,760 Speaker 1: say I make the rule that when I make the 386 00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:27,760 Speaker 1: electrons and make the rule that they both had to 387 00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:32,120 Speaker 1: be the same spin. Like, that's a possible rule, right, 388 00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:34,919 Speaker 1: that is a possible rule. Yes, if your photon has 389 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:37,760 Speaker 1: spin one, then the electrons, which have spin half each 390 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:40,199 Speaker 1: could be both having a point in the same direction 391 00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:42,520 Speaker 1: to make that original spin one. Yes, So I kind 392 00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:44,640 Speaker 1: of I entangle these two electrons and then I send 393 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:48,760 Speaker 1: one of them to another star proxim Centauri. Yeah, And 394 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:50,639 Speaker 1: I wait a while for it to get there. It 395 00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:53,919 Speaker 1: gets there, And now I opened my electron, the one 396 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:57,720 Speaker 1: I kept, and I see that it's pointing up. You're saying, instantaneously, 397 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:01,200 Speaker 1: without having to wait to check on the other electron, 398 00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:04,000 Speaker 1: I know that the other electron out there is also 399 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:08,680 Speaker 1: pointing up. Precisely, you now officially understand quantum entanglement. This 400 00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:11,320 Speaker 1: is the day forever after which you are an expert 401 00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:14,119 Speaker 1: in quant entanglement. Congratulations, right, But I guess what I 402 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:17,040 Speaker 1: don't know is how how you can use that for communication. 403 00:21:17,119 --> 00:21:18,600 Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like I just sent you a 404 00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:20,800 Speaker 1: package that I kind of already knew what was in it, 405 00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:23,399 Speaker 1: and before you open it, I know what's already in it. 406 00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:25,399 Speaker 1: But I'm the one who sent it, so I'm not 407 00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:29,240 Speaker 1: sure how that helps us communicate. That is the rub right, 408 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:32,000 Speaker 1: that's exactly the issue, And but you don't exactly know 409 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:34,359 Speaker 1: what's in it, right. I think in the case where 410 00:21:34,359 --> 00:21:36,760 Speaker 1: the photon has spin zero and so the electrons have 411 00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:39,080 Speaker 1: to be opposite, you don't know until you open it 412 00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:40,719 Speaker 1: which electron do you have. Do you have the one 413 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:42,240 Speaker 1: that's beIN up or do you have the one that's 414 00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:45,720 Speaker 1: beIN down? And so you have learned something about something 415 00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:50,240 Speaker 1: that's really far away. Before you measure your close by electron, 416 00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:53,159 Speaker 1: it could be up or down, and the far away 417 00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:56,360 Speaker 1: electron could also be up or down. It's not determined yet. 418 00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:59,720 Speaker 1: There's still some randomness. But when you measure the spin 419 00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:03,000 Speaker 1: of the close by electron, then you instantly know the 420 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:06,880 Speaker 1: spin of the far away electron instantly. The other way 421 00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:09,360 Speaker 1: to get that information is to let the people who 422 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:11,880 Speaker 1: have the far away electron measure it's spin and then 423 00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:14,520 Speaker 1: tell you, But that would take time for them to 424 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:17,840 Speaker 1: send you that information. So this is like a way 425 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:22,120 Speaker 1: to instantly no information that is far away. Now, that's 426 00:22:22,119 --> 00:22:26,240 Speaker 1: not the same as communication, which requires controlling information. And 427 00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:28,920 Speaker 1: this is the part that science fiction novels never get 428 00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:32,920 Speaker 1: into how do you use quantum entanglement to send information 429 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:35,480 Speaker 1: faster than light? They just sort of dot dot dot 430 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:39,000 Speaker 1: from quantum entanglement to instantaneous communication. They never get into it. 431 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:41,760 Speaker 1: Nobody actually knows. Nobody has worked it out. Nobody has 432 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:43,400 Speaker 1: worked it out. I mean people have thought about it. 433 00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:47,240 Speaker 1: And you know, this font experiment came from Einstein because, 434 00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:50,000 Speaker 1: as you said before, Einstein was trying to show the 435 00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:53,119 Speaker 1: quantum mechanics was ridiculous. Einstein was trying to prove that 436 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:55,520 Speaker 1: this new field of quantum mechanics makes no sense. So 437 00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:58,200 Speaker 1: he actually came up with this thought experiment, like, could 438 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:00,280 Speaker 1: you do this in the scenario your proposed in the 439 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:02,680 Speaker 1: quantum mechanics universe? If that was real, then you could 440 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:06,560 Speaker 1: do this absurd thing like knowing something about something really 441 00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:08,960 Speaker 1: far away. And so he proposed this in a paper 442 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,679 Speaker 1: and he said, look at this absurd outcome of your 443 00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:16,920 Speaker 1: predictions of quantum mechanics. Clearly you must reject this whole idea. Instead, 444 00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:19,920 Speaker 1: people were like, I could write a science fiction story 445 00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:22,679 Speaker 1: about that. No. Instead, people were like, that's a cool experiment, 446 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:25,359 Speaker 1: let's go do it, and they did it, and it 447 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:28,960 Speaker 1: turns out that the quantum mechanics predictions, absurd as they were, 448 00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:32,520 Speaker 1: were correct. That that's exactly what happens. What did they 449 00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:35,560 Speaker 1: prove that if you take two electrons, entangle them, and 450 00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:38,760 Speaker 1: then separate them, they're still entangled. Is that the experiment 451 00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:42,240 Speaker 1: they're still entangled, and that if you measure the first one, 452 00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:45,680 Speaker 1: the second one instantly collapses to being the opposite of 453 00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:48,480 Speaker 1: the first one. It collapses to to you, to to me, 454 00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:51,080 Speaker 1: but not to the person who's holding it out there. Yeah, 455 00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:54,440 Speaker 1: if you measure electron A, right, then electron B, which 456 00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:56,399 Speaker 1: can be really far away, it can be faster, it 457 00:23:56,440 --> 00:23:58,239 Speaker 1: can be far away than light can travel in the 458 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:01,359 Speaker 1: time they can. They measure it, and they measure that 459 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:04,720 Speaker 1: electron B also collapses at the same moment that electron 460 00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:07,160 Speaker 1: A collapses. That if they ask electron air you spin 461 00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:09,560 Speaker 1: up or spin down, then electron B goes from being 462 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,600 Speaker 1: spin up to spin down to being either one or 463 00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:16,640 Speaker 1: the other, being the opposite of electron A. So they've 464 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,320 Speaker 1: shown that this happens, that making a measurement in one 465 00:24:19,359 --> 00:24:23,560 Speaker 1: location changes the physics of the universe somewhere far away, 466 00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:26,320 Speaker 1: and it changes that the physics of the universe faster 467 00:24:26,359 --> 00:24:29,199 Speaker 1: than you could send information via light. It's not like 468 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:32,200 Speaker 1: something is happening in electron A and it secretly sends 469 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:34,639 Speaker 1: a message to electron be quick. I'm up, so you 470 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:38,080 Speaker 1: have to be down. They've separated these particles far enough away, 471 00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:41,840 Speaker 1: like kilometers now kilometers and kilometers, so there's no way 472 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:44,320 Speaker 1: for light to sneak that information. But what do you 473 00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:46,440 Speaker 1: mean it collapses on the other end, Like, but they 474 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:48,840 Speaker 1: haven't opened it. You're saying inside the box it's in, 475 00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:52,560 Speaker 1: it's technically collapse. Or are you saying that when they 476 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:55,480 Speaker 1: whenever they open that other box out there, they're going 477 00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:59,680 Speaker 1: to find that it's the It follows the rule. They 478 00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:02,399 Speaker 1: do open the box, and it follows the rule. Yeah. Like, 479 00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:05,800 Speaker 1: let's say I put two take two electrons, entangled them. 480 00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:08,560 Speaker 1: Let's say I make the rule that they both have 481 00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:11,280 Speaker 1: to be spinning the same direction. I think it's clearest 482 00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:13,719 Speaker 1: when they have to be spinning the opposite directions. Okay, 483 00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:15,639 Speaker 1: so let's have been make the rule that they have 484 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:20,400 Speaker 1: to be spinning the opposite direction. Okay, I entangled them. 485 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:23,240 Speaker 1: I keep one in my box and I sent the 486 00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:26,199 Speaker 1: other one to you in office Centari in a in 487 00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:29,159 Speaker 1: A box. I'm an Alpha centari. I have to go 488 00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:34,440 Speaker 1: to alpha centauri. I get to Alpha. Okay, I thought 489 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,800 Speaker 1: you already were there. But all right, I'm an alpha 490 00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:40,320 Speaker 1: centauri with the other box. Okay, yeah, I sent you 491 00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:43,679 Speaker 1: my the B electron. I kept the A electron. I 492 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:46,679 Speaker 1: sent you the B electron, and they're both entangled. And 493 00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:50,000 Speaker 1: now you're saying, if I opened my A electron and 494 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:52,760 Speaker 1: I see that it's pointing up, I know that B 495 00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:56,000 Speaker 1: is pointing down, but you don't know that B is 496 00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:58,280 Speaker 1: pointing down to you. That's right. But I measure it 497 00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:00,600 Speaker 1: and it points down right when you measure it. But 498 00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:02,840 Speaker 1: up to the point that you measure it, you don't 499 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:04,560 Speaker 1: know if it's pointing open down. That's right. But how 500 00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:06,720 Speaker 1: does how do they talk to each other? How do 501 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:09,080 Speaker 1: they know that one can point up and then we 502 00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:11,919 Speaker 1: can point down. They're separated, all right. Say we make 503 00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:14,720 Speaker 1: our measurements at the same moment or within a bill 504 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:17,520 Speaker 1: of second of each other. Okay, we are separated by 505 00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:21,439 Speaker 1: a light year. There's no time for for electron A 506 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,400 Speaker 1: to tell electron B what decision it has made. Oh, 507 00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:26,719 Speaker 1: I see what you're saying. You're saying that my electron 508 00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:29,199 Speaker 1: my A electron the one I kept could could be 509 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:31,720 Speaker 1: either one. It could be either one. Yes, If I 510 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:34,040 Speaker 1: do this experiment, a lot sometimes will be up, sometimes 511 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:36,520 Speaker 1: they'll be down. But the ones that it's up, then 512 00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:39,000 Speaker 1: yours will be down, and the ones that it's down, 513 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:42,800 Speaker 1: yours will be up. Precisely, and before you measure any 514 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,639 Speaker 1: of the particles, both could be up or down. They 515 00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:48,040 Speaker 1: have a fifty percent chance of being up in a 516 00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:51,600 Speaker 1: fifty percent chance of being down. When you measure electron 517 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:54,000 Speaker 1: A to B up, then electron B a light year 518 00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:57,520 Speaker 1: way has to instantly change from having even odds of 519 00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:00,560 Speaker 1: being up or down to just being down. It has 520 00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:03,639 Speaker 1: to because electron A was up. But how does it 521 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:06,359 Speaker 1: know that electron A was up. There's no way for 522 00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:11,240 Speaker 1: that information to get to electron B in time. Electron 523 00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:14,800 Speaker 1: A could have been down, forcing B to up. Electron 524 00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:17,760 Speaker 1: A spin could have been down, forcing B to be 525 00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:21,399 Speaker 1: spin up. Remember that both of them are undetermined until 526 00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:24,960 Speaker 1: you measure one of them, and then suddenly both are determined. 527 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:27,800 Speaker 1: This is like you take two prisoners and you isolate 528 00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:29,680 Speaker 1: them so they don't get to talk about their story, 529 00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:33,240 Speaker 1: and you asked one you know who robbed the bank, 530 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:34,800 Speaker 1: and you ask the other one who robbed the bank, 531 00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:39,640 Speaker 1: and their stories always agree, right, even though they could 532 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:41,199 Speaker 1: have lied, either of them, either of them could have 533 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:44,480 Speaker 1: lied exactly either what could have like either both lie 534 00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:47,000 Speaker 1: or they both not tell the truth. But some other 535 00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:50,080 Speaker 1: insane and it's physically impossible for them to communicate because 536 00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:53,159 Speaker 1: they are too far apart. When they first did these experiments, 537 00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:56,120 Speaker 1: they try to isolate the things, but they weren't actually 538 00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:58,680 Speaker 1: really that far apart. It's hard to get two quantumentango 539 00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:01,360 Speaker 1: particles actually far apart. But now they've done it. They've 540 00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:04,600 Speaker 1: quantum entangled particles between the surface of the Earth and 541 00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:08,040 Speaker 1: things on satellites for example. That's what that article was about, 542 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:10,720 Speaker 1: what we're talking about earlier. They quantum entangled physics on 543 00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:13,600 Speaker 1: the Earth and physics in a satellite. Okay, so that's 544 00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:15,919 Speaker 1: the spooky thing. It's like some of the two prisoners 545 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:19,240 Speaker 1: have their stories in sync, you know, the two White 546 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:23,639 Speaker 1: House officials are somehow saying the same thing. How about 547 00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:27,160 Speaker 1: the text messages. But they never talked to each other, 548 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,080 Speaker 1: and they couldn't possibly have coordinated. It couldn't. It's physically 549 00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:34,240 Speaker 1: impossible for them to coordinate. Yet somehow when electron A 550 00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:37,600 Speaker 1: collapses to up, electron B collapses to down, or the 551 00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:39,640 Speaker 1: other way around. How do I know they didn't coordinate 552 00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:41,800 Speaker 1: before I separated them. Yes, that is one of the 553 00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:44,800 Speaker 1: deepest questions about particle physics and quantum mechanics is that 554 00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:48,080 Speaker 1: is there a hidden variable. Maybe A wasn't actually both 555 00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:51,120 Speaker 1: up and down. Maybe there's some hidden variable there, something 556 00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:53,000 Speaker 1: that determines it forces A to be up, and so 557 00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:55,600 Speaker 1: of course B is down. It's no surprise you know 558 00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:57,240 Speaker 1: that you have half of the cake the other one. 559 00:28:57,280 --> 00:28:59,200 Speaker 1: It's the other half of the cake, because it's been 560 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,400 Speaker 1: those halves the entire time. When while they were traveling 561 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,960 Speaker 1: to be farther away, that's a really like they decided like, hey, 562 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,080 Speaker 1: i'll be down, Okay, that means you have to be up, 563 00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:11,200 Speaker 1: and then they separated. You're saying, that's not that's not 564 00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:14,240 Speaker 1: what's happening. We know that's not what's happening. The explanation 565 00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:15,920 Speaker 1: for that, And I know people out there who are 566 00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:18,560 Speaker 1: desperately curious about quantum mechanics and skeptical of this. I 567 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:21,040 Speaker 1: wanted to precisely the answer to that question because when 568 00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:23,240 Speaker 1: I was learning quantum mechanics, that's the thing I was 569 00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:25,560 Speaker 1: wondering about, how do you know there isn't some like 570 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:28,560 Speaker 1: hidden variable, something we just haven't measured, some property the 571 00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:31,000 Speaker 1: electron which determines or forces want to be up in 572 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:33,160 Speaker 1: the other one to be down. Now, the answer is 573 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:35,840 Speaker 1: a bit frustrating. The answer is not a smoking gun. 574 00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:39,040 Speaker 1: It's a much more subtle experiment. It's called an It's 575 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:42,080 Speaker 1: invented by a guy named Bell, and it's about measuring 576 00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:44,960 Speaker 1: the correlation between A and B. You can't prove that 577 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,720 Speaker 1: there's no hidden variable for one experiment, but if you 578 00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:49,640 Speaker 1: do this over and over again and you sort of 579 00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:52,840 Speaker 1: rotate the spin of the electrons, you can prove that 580 00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:56,040 Speaker 1: there is no local hidden variable. It's really one of 581 00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:59,440 Speaker 1: the most beautiful and subtle pieces of physics I've ever learned. 582 00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:02,160 Speaker 1: So to show that there's no way for the two 583 00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:05,360 Speaker 1: electrons to have been determined in advance which one would 584 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:07,320 Speaker 1: be up and which one would be down, that's what 585 00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:10,880 Speaker 1: we technically called the no local hidden variable. What Bell 586 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,560 Speaker 1: did was used a second weird aspect of quantum mechanics 587 00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,960 Speaker 1: to help pin down this first weird aspect. On the 588 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,480 Speaker 1: episode about spin, remember we talked about how you can't 589 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:23,240 Speaker 1: know the spin in two directions at the same time. 590 00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:26,080 Speaker 1: It's just like how you can't know a particle's momentum 591 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:28,880 Speaker 1: in position at the same time because of the uncertainty principle. 592 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:31,520 Speaker 1: In the same way, measuring the spin in one direction 593 00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:34,560 Speaker 1: like X will re randomize the spin in the other 594 00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:38,280 Speaker 1: directions like why. So Bell used this to his advantage 595 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,959 Speaker 1: to show that the spin really is randomized before it's measured. 596 00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:45,600 Speaker 1: His experiment says, you should separate the particles, but then 597 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:48,880 Speaker 1: measure the spin in other directions, not the one that 598 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:52,560 Speaker 1: you have this quantum mechanical entanglement constraint on. And he 599 00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:55,480 Speaker 1: showed that if there is a local hidden variable, it 600 00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:58,880 Speaker 1: will affect not just the constraint direction, but also the 601 00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:02,560 Speaker 1: spins you measure in other directions. If there isn't a 602 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:07,080 Speaker 1: local hidden variable, if the electrons really are undetermined until 603 00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,200 Speaker 1: you measure them, then you will not affect the randomness 604 00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:12,440 Speaker 1: in the other directions. So he was able to come 605 00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:15,600 Speaker 1: up with an experiment that gives different predictions if there's 606 00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:18,960 Speaker 1: randomness and if there's local hidden variables. And then they 607 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:22,200 Speaker 1: did the experiment and boom, it showed that there really 608 00:31:22,360 --> 00:31:24,800 Speaker 1: is randomness, but we should dig into it further on 609 00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:27,920 Speaker 1: a whole separate podcast episode, because it's really fascinating. They 610 00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:31,120 Speaker 1: have proven that there is no local bit of information 611 00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:34,400 Speaker 1: that could be hiding inside those boxes to determine that 612 00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:37,400 Speaker 1: one electron actually is up and the other one actually 613 00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:40,160 Speaker 1: is down. We know that the that there really is 614 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:42,760 Speaker 1: uncertainty there, that the electron could really be up or 615 00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:45,720 Speaker 1: down when you've entangled them and when when you've separated them, 616 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:48,360 Speaker 1: and that that collapses the moment you measure one of them, 617 00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:50,640 Speaker 1: even if they're really far apart. Yeah, it's kind of 618 00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:52,480 Speaker 1: like if you do the experiment a bunch of times 619 00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:55,360 Speaker 1: and you you sort of know for sure that the 620 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:59,680 Speaker 1: two prisoners couldn't have possibly God in their story straight 621 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:02,800 Speaker 1: ahead of time. There's something weird going on. There is 622 00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:05,000 Speaker 1: something weird going on. Even just doing a lot of 623 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:08,520 Speaker 1: times doesn't satisfactory resolve that question, because there could be 624 00:32:08,520 --> 00:32:10,520 Speaker 1: a hidden variable in each case, and so doing it 625 00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:13,280 Speaker 1: many many times just reinforces that. It has to do 626 00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:16,880 Speaker 1: with having with measuring these spins along different axes and 627 00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:20,120 Speaker 1: then rotating that access and you can show that as 628 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:22,880 Speaker 1: a function of that rotation, things would act differently if 629 00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:24,840 Speaker 1: there is a hidden variable, then if there isn't a 630 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:27,200 Speaker 1: hidden variable. But again it's a bit too subtle to 631 00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:31,120 Speaker 1: get into. I think on today's podcast it involves spinning prisoners, 632 00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:34,200 Speaker 1: which we can't get into. It's right. We tried to 633 00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:37,240 Speaker 1: file for research allow us to do that, and they said, no, 634 00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:40,920 Speaker 1: that's uh, that's not that's the violent human rights in 635 00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:43,480 Speaker 1: humane exactly. And then I tried to say, but it's 636 00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:47,600 Speaker 1: for black matter, quantum foam telephone, and we're doing it 637 00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:51,320 Speaker 1: in a Stanford basement. It's all right, at least, no, 638 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:53,920 Speaker 1: it wasn't approved, all right. So so that's where this 639 00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:57,360 Speaker 1: idea that you could use this for faster than light 640 00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:00,800 Speaker 1: communication is that there's something something's going on faster than light, 641 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:04,560 Speaker 1: and so could we use that to communicate faster than light? Right, 642 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:06,880 Speaker 1: that's where the idea came from. Yes, something here is 643 00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:10,200 Speaker 1: happening faster than light, and so people thought, oh, maybe 644 00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:12,880 Speaker 1: we could communicate faster than light. That's the genesis of 645 00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:15,200 Speaker 1: the idea. All right, let's get into whether it is 646 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,120 Speaker 1: possible to use this for faster than light communication. But 647 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:33,720 Speaker 1: first let's take a quick break. All right. So we 648 00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:37,760 Speaker 1: talked about quantum entanglement and how there is something going 649 00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:40,440 Speaker 1: on with it that's faster than light. But the question 650 00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:43,080 Speaker 1: is can we use that to talk to aliens faster 651 00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:46,560 Speaker 1: than light or to you know, Daniel, who's an alpha 652 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:50,400 Speaker 1: centry faster than light? And so what's the answer here, Daniel? 653 00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:53,680 Speaker 1: How how could we use could we use quantum entanglement 654 00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:58,080 Speaker 1: to violate the fundamental speed limit of the universe? Well, first, 655 00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:00,040 Speaker 1: I want to say that I think this is a 656 00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:03,760 Speaker 1: totally good idea to investigate because there's often loopholes, you know, 657 00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:06,480 Speaker 1: we talked about on the warp Drive episode, like yeah, 658 00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:09,400 Speaker 1: you can't travel faster than light through space, but just 659 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:11,400 Speaker 1: change your definition of what you want to do and 660 00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:13,160 Speaker 1: don't say I want to go through space, so you 661 00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:15,760 Speaker 1: want to squeeze space so you can get somewhere faster 662 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:18,399 Speaker 1: than light would have gotten. So it's a great sort 663 00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:21,799 Speaker 1: of avenue for exploration to look for loopholes and try 664 00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:23,719 Speaker 1: to find ways to accomplish what you want to do 665 00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:27,040 Speaker 1: without breaking the laws of physics. But in this case 666 00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:30,600 Speaker 1: it's not gonna work. And the reason is to go 667 00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:32,480 Speaker 1: back to what you were saying before, like say you 668 00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:34,719 Speaker 1: have these two electrons, let's try to dot the lines 669 00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:37,560 Speaker 1: to say, say you have these two electrons quantum entangled 670 00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:40,279 Speaker 1: between here and alpha centauri. How would you actually use 671 00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:44,040 Speaker 1: that to send information? Why would you build a communication system? 672 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:46,719 Speaker 1: Say you want to send me a bit, right, you 673 00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:48,440 Speaker 1: want to send me a zero or a one. You 674 00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:50,480 Speaker 1: know you wanna tell me whether or not the apple 675 00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:53,880 Speaker 1: pie is ready to eat? One? Is apple pie is ready? Zeros? Noops, 676 00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:55,759 Speaker 1: I burned the apple pie or something. You want to 677 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:57,840 Speaker 1: send me some I want to give you a thumbs 678 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:00,480 Speaker 1: up or thumbs down. Yeah, how would you do that? Well? 679 00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:02,839 Speaker 1: In order to do one lamp if the British are coming, 680 00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:09,239 Speaker 1: two lamps if they're coming by spaceship. In order to 681 00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:12,400 Speaker 1: do that, you have to sort of control the information 682 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:15,399 Speaker 1: you You might be tempted to say, Okay, what I'm 683 00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:17,799 Speaker 1: gonna do is I'm gonna force my electron to be 684 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:20,640 Speaker 1: spin up in one case. I'm gonna force it to 685 00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:22,680 Speaker 1: be spin down in the other case, because that determines 686 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:26,360 Speaker 1: what happens to Daniel's electron. And sort of like twiddle 687 00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:29,759 Speaker 1: Daniel's electron from really far away by twiddling mine, that's 688 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:32,560 Speaker 1: the tempting way to thing to go right, and twangled 689 00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:36,319 Speaker 1: entanglement connects the two electrons and you're saying, like, if 690 00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:39,359 Speaker 1: I see the British coming by sea, I'll turn my 691 00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:43,960 Speaker 1: electron down, which makes your electron turn up, And somehow 692 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:47,040 Speaker 1: I talked to you faster than like that's the idea. 693 00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:51,239 Speaker 1: But that doesn't work, right, That fundamentally doesn't work. And 694 00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:54,080 Speaker 1: the reason it's pretty simple is that you can ask 695 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:57,240 Speaker 1: the electron what state is it, but you can't force 696 00:35:57,280 --> 00:35:59,000 Speaker 1: it to be in a particular state because if you do, 697 00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:02,880 Speaker 1: it breaks the tanglement. Right, the rules of the entanglement 698 00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:05,160 Speaker 1: are that the two have to be in opposite states 699 00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:07,840 Speaker 1: because you're preserving the Anglar momentum of the system that 700 00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:10,439 Speaker 1: created them. There's this law of physics that requires them 701 00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:12,480 Speaker 1: to still tally up in the end to have the 702 00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:15,360 Speaker 1: same Anglar momentum as the original system. But if you 703 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:17,600 Speaker 1: interact with one of them, then you break that because 704 00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:20,520 Speaker 1: you're adding momentum or adding Anglard momentum to the system. 705 00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:22,880 Speaker 1: You've broken that quantum system. You made a new quantum 706 00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:25,200 Speaker 1: system and that doesn't have to follow the same rules 707 00:36:25,239 --> 00:36:28,520 Speaker 1: as the original. Oh, I see, so there's communication going on, 708 00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:32,319 Speaker 1: but there's no So it's like there's communication going on, 709 00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:35,600 Speaker 1: but there's no talking. Going on. The two electrons somehow 710 00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,799 Speaker 1: are coordinating, right, there's definitely collusion happening there, but you 711 00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:41,479 Speaker 1: can't force one electron to be in a certain state, 712 00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:43,160 Speaker 1: which is what you would need to do to send 713 00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:46,440 Speaker 1: information from one to the other. No, no, Daniel, no 714 00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:51,000 Speaker 1: collusion which hunt, No elect These electrons really do colue 715 00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:55,919 Speaker 1: this quantum collusion. See I invented the phrase. Also, all right, 716 00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 1: quantum collusion good luck. Yeah, but that one you both 717 00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:02,200 Speaker 1: did it and are somehow not guilty of it at 718 00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:06,840 Speaker 1: the same time. Anyway. No, the possess the frustrating is 719 00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:10,080 Speaker 1: the problem is that this quantum entanglement thing really is real, 720 00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:12,680 Speaker 1: and it really does happen, and there is something weird 721 00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:15,160 Speaker 1: and fashion light happening, but we can't use it to 722 00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:18,040 Speaker 1: send information because you touch one of them, you basically 723 00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:21,040 Speaker 1: break the magic. Right. It's like, we can both learn 724 00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:24,480 Speaker 1: what each other has faster than light, but I can't 725 00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:28,040 Speaker 1: tell you about what. I can't tell you anything. We 726 00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:32,360 Speaker 1: just both learned faster than light. Precisely, we learn, we 727 00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:35,839 Speaker 1: learn about each other, but what we have, but we 728 00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:38,239 Speaker 1: can't tell each other something. Yeah, you're like, okay, I 729 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:41,239 Speaker 1: did sent Daniel to Alpha Centauri he spent five years 730 00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:42,799 Speaker 1: of his life getting there, and now I know which 731 00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:47,080 Speaker 1: electronic has. Okay, what does that do for us? Nothing? Yeah, 732 00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:49,680 Speaker 1: it's like I opened my I opened my electron. It's like, oh, 733 00:37:49,680 --> 00:37:52,560 Speaker 1: it's pointing up. That means Daniels is pointing down and 734 00:37:52,640 --> 00:37:55,480 Speaker 1: that that doesn't help us at all. Talk that doesn't 735 00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:57,279 Speaker 1: help us at all. And so I spent ten years 736 00:37:57,320 --> 00:37:59,120 Speaker 1: of my life on an experiment we already knew was 737 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:03,560 Speaker 1: doomed about what we've learned, and we just spanned forty 738 00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:07,319 Speaker 1: minutes on a podcast that's also doing Yeah, and so 739 00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:11,520 Speaker 1: you know, there are fascinating ideas there. There's amazing quandom, 740 00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:15,680 Speaker 1: magic seeming stuff happening. It seems like maybe quantum mechanics 741 00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:19,080 Speaker 1: could evade relativity somehow, but in the end, relativity is 742 00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:22,520 Speaker 1: hard and fast. There's no way to send information through 743 00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:25,319 Speaker 1: space faster than light. I mean, if you did, you 744 00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:28,000 Speaker 1: could break causality. And we're gonna have a whole podcast 745 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:30,960 Speaker 1: episode about what it means to have things happening simultaneously 746 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,719 Speaker 1: and causality and all that fun stuff maybe next week 747 00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:36,759 Speaker 1: or so. But the short version is that relativity is 748 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,120 Speaker 1: the law. We're pretty sure cannot be broken. It can 749 00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:42,160 Speaker 1: be evaded. You can squeeze space instead of moving through it, 750 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:44,440 Speaker 1: but you cannot break it. So the only way I 751 00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:46,960 Speaker 1: think to get messages to Alpha Centauri faster than light 752 00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:49,239 Speaker 1: would get there would basically be to warp there and 753 00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:53,080 Speaker 1: warp back. Well, there you go. Can I make a 754 00:38:53,239 --> 00:38:58,120 Speaker 1: warmhole telephone, like open a wormhole to you that somehow 755 00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:01,560 Speaker 1: I can, you know, transmit information through it? That is 756 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:05,960 Speaker 1: totally theoretically allowed. Yes, so that doesn't require quantum entanglement. 757 00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:09,640 Speaker 1: It requires negative mass particles, which were not sure actually 758 00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:13,280 Speaker 1: exist in this universe. But theoretically there's nothing that prevents 759 00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:16,560 Speaker 1: you from opening a wormhole. It might also require as 760 00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:19,359 Speaker 1: much energy as is stored in the planet Jupiter, but hey, 761 00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:24,439 Speaker 1: that's an engineering problem, not physics problem. That's a small 762 00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:26,759 Speaker 1: price to pay to to tell you if the pie 763 00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:29,360 Speaker 1: is burned or not. You can just send me a 764 00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:32,480 Speaker 1: new pie for that price. I can just eat the 765 00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:34,080 Speaker 1: pie and forget about you. I'm never going to see 766 00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:36,440 Speaker 1: you again. Danny Dann won't be back for years. He's 767 00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:41,440 Speaker 1: stuck on Office Centauri and some wild quantum hip I 768 00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:45,520 Speaker 1: will be running, and only by the timing unless it's 769 00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:47,960 Speaker 1: a quantum pie. There we go. We're inventing phrases all 770 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:50,360 Speaker 1: over the place. All right, Well, it sounds like the 771 00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:54,440 Speaker 1: answer to the question is not really, you can't use 772 00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:58,120 Speaker 1: quantum entanglement to talk to aliens faster than light. All 773 00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:02,240 Speaker 1: those science fiction novels, they're just fiction. They are just fiction, 774 00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:04,440 Speaker 1: after all. And I want to give props to science 775 00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:08,239 Speaker 1: fiction authors for trying, for actually thinking how could you 776 00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:10,360 Speaker 1: do this, and for getting a little bit into the 777 00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:13,239 Speaker 1: science from not just sort of brushing over like I 778 00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:15,040 Speaker 1: don't know, we just have some sort of answerable that 779 00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:18,080 Speaker 1: let's just talk magically across the universe. I like that 780 00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:20,480 Speaker 1: they dug into a little bit, and uh, you know, 781 00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:23,600 Speaker 1: so kudos to them. And science fiction often leads the 782 00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:27,840 Speaker 1: way in research and creates things which then scientists actually build. 783 00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:30,799 Speaker 1: So we certainly don't mean to criticize science fiction authors, 784 00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:33,320 Speaker 1: but in this case, that idea, as far as I understand, 785 00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:35,719 Speaker 1: will not work, which is a bummer. But hey, you know, 786 00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:39,440 Speaker 1: if you're writing a science fiction novel right now and 787 00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:42,560 Speaker 1: this episode frustrated to you, just remember that scientists have 788 00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:50,040 Speaker 1: not technically disproven quantum facting, which is not field yeah, 789 00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:54,320 Speaker 1: not yet, which you can use for your science fiction novels, 790 00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:57,080 Speaker 1: So there you go, send me the royalties. That's right. 791 00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:00,160 Speaker 1: And if you are writting a science fiction novel and 792 00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:01,920 Speaker 1: struggling a little bit with the science of it, hey 793 00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:04,080 Speaker 1: send me an email. I am happy to give you 794 00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:08,240 Speaker 1: consultation on how to devise your science fiction universe. Daniel 795 00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:11,600 Speaker 1: and Jorge fix your science fit your novel new podcast. 796 00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:14,359 Speaker 1: That's right, all right, Well, thank you for joining us. 797 00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:18,399 Speaker 1: We hope you found that interesting and um not didn't 798 00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:20,560 Speaker 1: get too entangled in your head there, that's right. We 799 00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:23,200 Speaker 1: hope we didn't entangle your neurons any further than they 800 00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:26,279 Speaker 1: already were, or that we gave it unnecessary spin to 801 00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:30,040 Speaker 1: the topic. As usual, Jorge spun it up and I 802 00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:32,560 Speaker 1: spun it down. Well, thanks for joining us, see you 803 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:42,799 Speaker 1: next time. Thanks for tuning in. Before you still have 804 00:41:42,840 --> 00:41:46,239 Speaker 1: a question after listening to all these explanations, please drop 805 00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:48,360 Speaker 1: us a line. We'd love to hear from you. You 806 00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:51,840 Speaker 1: can find us at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Daniel 807 00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:55,360 Speaker 1: and Jorge that's one word, or email us at Feedback 808 00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:58,680 Speaker 1: at Daniel and Jorge dot com. Thanks for listening, and 809 00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:01,400 Speaker 1: remember that Daniel and Hey explain the universe is a 810 00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:04,920 Speaker 1: production of i heart Radio. For more podcast from my 811 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:08,600 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 812 00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:16,440 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah.