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originally posted by: bhaal
Would finding the theory of everything rule out freewill.

IF (big if) all of the particles in the universe were set upon their initial trajectories by the big bang, and those initial particle trajectories led to interactions between those particles, which led to the motion of all particles in the universe today (including the particles in your brain chemistry that causes you to make decisions)...

...Then it is quite possible that everything we do is totally based upon the initial trajectories those particles were set upon by the big bang.

So if that were the case, then we have no free will. Hypothetically, if there was a way for use to track the initial trajectory of all of those particles at the moment of the big bang, then we could conceivably be able to predict the future trajectories of all of those particles, including the ones in your brain, which would allow us to know every decision you will make in the future (yeah -- I know that's a lot of particles, but as a hypothetical concept, it is valid).

However, if there was (even very very occasionally) some complete randomness in some of the motions of particles, then it could be said we DO have free will, because that randomness would not be something that was predictable.

originally posted by: stormbringer1701
why are these electrons referred to as EPR electrons?

phys.org...

are they proposing a spacetime tunnel like the EPR bridges i am somewhat familiar with from reading speculative physics books and articles and so forth? or is that not what they meant to imply by the label?

EPR entanglement would refer to entanglement as described in the following paper by EPR (initials of the three authors). They don't mention any space-time tunnel, just that two particles interact, are separated, and then exhibit "spooky action at a distance" (The paper doesn't call it that but Einstein, the "E" in "EPR", did outside this paper).

"Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality be Considered Complete?"

By the way if Sean Carroll's preferred interpretation is right, even apparently non-local correlations can be explained as local, but that description just moves the "spookiness" from "action at a distance" to "multiple universes", at least that idea seems just as spooky to me and probably to most people.

originally posted by: ImaFungi


Time is the fact that something/matter; moves.

Imagine if all that is not nothing; Did not move at all, forever.

No time.

So you are saying time is related to the uncertainty principle? I don't see how that phenomenon would be responsible for creating time?

originally posted by: dragonridr
a reply to: joelr

Time is something that has always fascinated me. What is it why can't we reverse it. I read an interesting theory that the key to the universe is quantum entanglement. It was believed entropy controlled time In this theory it's connections. As things become entangled they gain equalibrium. So time is simply an object making more and more connections with the universe. What's even stranger is time can only be observed from inside the universe it is a emergent property of entanglement.To an observer outside the universe it would appear static and unchanging.

I'm fascinated by time too. I don't know how entanglement relates to time? It seems like you need time for entanglement to happen rather than it creating time. In this theory does entanglement create space too? Space and time are part of the same space-time so both things have to be effected.

The idea of "outside the universe" doesn't make much sense though so it's hard to say what that would be like. How would one even "see" it? There is no light from inside the universe or anything that could be used to see the universe outside of it and where are the borders anyways?

originally posted by: ImaFungi

originally posted by: dragonridr


Unless your adding energy to your electron you can shake it all day. Need to introduce a magnetic field to interact with the field of our electron because we need energy. This is what a device like a wiggler does I mentioned earlier it adds energy to our system.

Is the increase of velocity/momentum an increase of energy?

Yes, this relates to what dragonridr is telling you.
It's in the basic Einstein equation - Energy = momentum and rest mass. Then you just have to know what to multiply by c and what to square and when to use rest mass, rest energy and sometimes v/speed.

It's all energy changing into different forms and following potentials.

originally posted by: joelr

originally posted by: dragonridr
a reply to: joelr

Time is something that has always fascinated me. What is it why can't we reverse it. I read an interesting theory that the key to the universe is quantum entanglement. It was believed entropy controlled time In this theory it's connections. As things become entangled they gain equalibrium. So time is simply an object making more and more connections with the universe. What's even stranger is time can only be observed from inside the universe it is a emergent property of entanglement.To an observer outside the universe it would appear static and unchanging.

I'm fascinated by time too. I don't know how entanglement relates to time? It seems like you need time for entanglement to happen rather than it creating time. In this theory does entanglement create space too? Space and time are part of the same space-time so both things have to be effected.

The idea of "outside the universe" doesn't make much sense though so it's hard to say what that would be like. How would one even "see" it? There is no light from inside the universe or anything that could be used to see the universe outside of it and where are the borders anyways?

Since your interested here is an experiment done. To show time is just a property of entanglement. It's basic but it gets the idea across. Because the two seem contradictory how can time emerge from something yet something can occur in the first place. But at least we are starting to see a pattern gravity and time appear to be properties.


medium.com...

originally posted by: dragonridr
Since your interested here is an experiment done. To show time is just a property of entanglement.

It doesn't really do that though. As your link says:

It’s one thing to show how time emerges for photons, it’s quite another to show how it emerges for larger things such as humans and train timetables.

Time seems to apply to particles which are not entangled as well as those which are entangled, so I don't see how saying time emerges from entangled particles explains what happens with unentangled particles. It doesn't.

originally posted by: Arbitrageur

originally posted by: dragonridr
Since your interested here is an experiment done. To show time is just a property of entanglement.

It doesn't really do that though. As your link says:

It’s one thing to show how time emerges for photons, it’s quite another to show how it emerges for larger things such as humans and train timetables.

Time seems to apply to particles which are not entangled as well as those which are entangled, so I don't see how saying time emerges from entangled particles explains what happens with unentangled particles. It doesn't.

It is as I stated to give the basic idea how it works how time could be a property of particles. By no means is this meant to be definitive proof it's only a beginning.

still trying to figure out my WiFi mystery. wanna run this past you guys. I just realized I have one of those ion fans in my hallway between the router and where the signal drops significantly.

think its possible the "ion wind" fan could be messing up my wifi signal?

a reply to: BASSPLYR

In a limiting case, yes. It would have to be putting out one hellacious ionic breeze, though, more of a tornado.

a reply to: Bedlam
Is the amount of ozone they generate worth worrying about?

a reply to: DenyObfuscation

Actually, with some of them, yes, it can be. It depends on the design. And how much air turnover you have in the room. Some air cleaners with ion sources or electrostatic precipitators in can generate a metric crapton of ozone.

We did a few designs on this very sort of thing, it was a design for the control system for what you could consider a really advanced air cleaner, and as usual we ended up sort of seeping into other parts of the system design. The ozone issue was really a worse thing than they had considered, and you got a lot of ozone anyway in this environment due to being in a closed in space with a lot of HV sources (CRTs are bad, oddly) so after some surprisingly bad data started popping up, we went looking for a solution.

What you use is a hopcalite filter. Hopcalite not only destroys ozone, it also converts carbon monoxide to CO2, and degrades a variety of VOCs, especially if you heat it a bit. So it's always worth having. A few higher-end consumer products have hopcalite, or did, anyway, but I'm not sure about now.

Oh, and most electrostatic air cleaners you see on the market are done backwards, but that's another story.

eta: Thought I remembered it...do you recall "Sharper Image"? They were bankrupted over their "Ionic Breeze" air cleaner's ozone output some years ago.

a reply to: Bedlam
Yeah, the Sharper Image deal must be why I even knew those things could generate ozone. I didn't realize they went BK though. Gotta get out more.

Heads up BASSPLYR!!!

originally posted by: glend
Quantum entanglement seems to infer the structure of our universe is not as black and white as the great Einstein once theorized which seems to side with theories that suggest our universe is a holographic projection ....
www.nature.com...

Love to hear your thoughts on quantum entanglement. Will one day it allow us to see other worlds without the need of telescopes.

There was a book written (sic-Fi for now) by A.C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter regarding this subject; I highly recommend it as it will definitely cause you to think.
The Light of Other Days

originally posted by: Bedlam
eta: Thought I remembered it...do you recall "Sharper Image"? They were bankrupted over their "Ionic Breeze" air cleaner's ozone output some years ago.

Yes, people were buying the ionic breeze to improve their health, only to find out it was actually harmful to their health:

www.consumeraffairs.com...

"I purchased two Ionic Breeze Quadras about 9 years ago to help with my allergies and asthma," Victoria, of Cambria, California told ConsumerAffairs.com last year. "It was only recently I read some information that the ozone emitted from these air 'purifiers' could worsen asthma symptoms and I decided to shut mine down.

"My asthma had been getting progressively worse for years, and now, after only 2 days of this thing being off, I have noticed a dramatic reduction is my symptoms," she said. "I do not know yet if the damage to my lungs is permanent, but for the first time in at least a year, I can take a deep breath without coughing and I don't wake up every two hours needing to use an inhaler."

The company has experienced steadily falling sales since 2004, and has reported net losses in the last three years. In court papers, Sharper Image blamed its woes, in part, on negative publicity surrounding the Ionic Breeze.

That wasn't the only reason for the bankruptcy but it did play a major role.

originally posted by: notmyrealname
There was a book written (sic-Fi for now) by A.C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter regarding this subject; I highly recommend it as it will definitely cause you to think.
The Light of Other Days

When a brilliant, driven industrialist harnesses the cutting edge of quantum physics to enable people everywhere, at trivial cost, to see one another at all times: around every corner, through every wall, into everyone's most private, hidden, and even intimate moments. It amounts to the sudden and complete abolition of human privacy--forever.

The NSA and GCHQ can almost do that now and share with each other; if they would just share with everybody else then it would essentially be non-fiction.

originally posted by: Arbitrageur
...to see one another at all times: around every corner, through every wall, into everyone's most private, hidden, and even intimate moments. It amounts to the sudden and complete abolition of human privacy--forever.

We call that...Visibuilding and Multipath Exploitation Radar.

a reply to: Bedlam
It's a lot easier than that, they don't need any fancy radar, we give them the tools to spy on us:

How to Keep the NSA From Spying Through Your Webcam

You already know that laptops, desktop computers, tablets and mobile phones are all at risk of being hacked. But did you know that intruders might use the built-in camera to take surreptitious pictures and videos of you and your surroundings or hijack your microphone to eavesdrop on conversations?

The latest story from the Edward Snowden leaks yesterday drives home that the NSA and its spy partners possess specialized tools for doing exactly that. According to The Intercept, the NSA uses a plug-in called GUMFISH to take over cameras on infected machines and snap photos.

Another NSA plug-in called CAPTIVATEDAUDIENCE hijacks the microphone on targeted computers to record conversations.

Intelligence agencies have been turning computers into listening devices for at least a decade, as evidenced by the Flame spy tool uncovered by Kaspersky Lab in 2012, which had the ability to surreptitiously turn on webcams and microphones and perform a host of other espionage operations. Researchers believe Flame has been around since 2007.

Of course if you put a piece of tape over the camera in your laptop then they have to settle for just the audio, but I haven't seen many people actually do that.

I have another question.

can plasma be used to absorb kinetic energy to some degree? specifically. can it convert to any degree incoming sound waves like say a sonic shock wave to some other energy, like photons?

if so could these hypothetical conversions of sound energy into light energy cause a already excited particle, like say exhaust particulates, to remain photonically excited a bit longer than just on their own.

i.e. could one theoretically use the exhaust stream to absorb sonic pressure wave energy enough to cause a reduction in decible via finessing the exhaust stream into some plasma sheath extending a distance behind say an aircraft engine.

in effect creating a virtual extension of the fuselage length to absorb more sonic shock pressure, which would have a side effect of converting some of that sound into light (in the form of further exciting exhaust particles, that tend to remain glowing longer than usual)

originally posted by: BASSPLYR
I have another question.

can plasma be used to absorb kinetic energy to some degree? specifically. can it convert to any degree incoming sound waves like say a sonic shock wave to some other energy, like photons?

if so could these hypothetical conversions of sound energy into light energy cause a already excited particle, like say exhaust particulates, to remain photonically excited a bit longer than just on their own.

i.e. could one theoretically use the exhaust stream to absorb sonic pressure wave energy enough to cause a reduction in decible via finessing the exhaust stream into some plasma sheath extending a distance behind say an aircraft engine.

in effect creating a virtual extension of the fuselage length to absorb more sonic shock pressure, which would have a side effect of converting some of that sound into light (in the form of further exciting exhaust particles, that tend to remain glowing longer than usual)

Ok not sure what you mean exactly with plasma. Can't see any useful thing involving aound. Now is there energy in sound waves well of course. But to be useful for anything we need a very loud constant noise. I'd say jet engine could qualify problem is creating something that can sit behind a jet engine and allow the plane to still fly. So can that energy from a plane be used very unlikely. Can we do it on say a subway yeah sure you could capture the vibrations to create electricity though I doubt be much more than a couple of light bulbs.

For the physics experts here, I have a question:

Can a ship using warp drive create a wake, ripples or waves in the space time fabric? I mean something similar to a speed boat traveling fast in a lake creates a wake that is visible and measurable in the water.

I am inclined to think that they should, I also wonder how would it look like or feel if you were caught in the wake of a passing spaceship at warp drive, do you think that all objects including yourself would be temporally distorted?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts..