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TheAlkemist
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Excerpted from an article by U. of Hawaii Physics Professor, Victor J. Stenger:
"As has been known for seventy years, quantum phenomena depend not only on the initial conditions of an experimental setup but also on the final conditions. This observation already signals that the quantum world is time-symmetrical. Quantum phenomena do not distinguish between "initial" and "final." These are commonsense designations that can be interchanged without making any changes in the basic theory...
...All the alleged paradoxes of quantum mechanics result from the unnecessary use at the quantum scale of the singular time direction of common experience. No doubt the arrow of time we all experience in our lives is an objective reality. But it can be shown to be a consequence of the statistical behavior of systems of large numbers of particles. The probabilistic behavior observed on large scales does not apply for the small numbers of particles involved in quantum phenomena."
Source:http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Timeless/nowhen.html
But if our common sense experience of the world is time asymmetric (I know we remember the past and wonder about the future) in the way we perceive causality, what sense does it make to talk about an objective reality where time is symmetric?
What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks.
"As has been known for seventy years, quantum phenomena depend not only on the initial conditions of an experimental setup but also on the final conditions. This observation already signals that the quantum world is time-symmetrical. Quantum phenomena do not distinguish between "initial" and "final." These are commonsense designations that can be interchanged without making any changes in the basic theory...
...All the alleged paradoxes of quantum mechanics result from the unnecessary use at the quantum scale of the singular time direction of common experience. No doubt the arrow of time we all experience in our lives is an objective reality. But it can be shown to be a consequence of the statistical behavior of systems of large numbers of particles. The probabilistic behavior observed on large scales does not apply for the small numbers of particles involved in quantum phenomena."
Source:http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Timeless/nowhen.html
But if our common sense experience of the world is time asymmetric (I know we remember the past and wonder about the future) in the way we perceive causality, what sense does it make to talk about an objective reality where time is symmetric?
What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks.
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