Re: Quantum Immortality = no second law

From: Bruno Marchal <marchal.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:37:28 +0200

Are you saying that the second law is verified in each of all
"branches" of the (quantum) multiverse? I would say the second law is
statistical, and is verified in most branches. In the MWI applied to
quantum field it seems to me that there can be branches with an
arbitrarily high number of photon creation without annihilation, and
this for each period of time. Those branches do violate the second law
for that period of time, although in most of branches, such violation
are quite ephemera. The probability to find ourself in such branch, a
priori, is very little, but the probability to *remain* in such a
branch is exponentially more negligible, if I can say. And that is what
counts, if you accept the RSSA.
(Then if comp is true, my point is that even schroedinger equation
itself has to come from a statistical phenomenon, albeit pertaining on
number (or abstract machines) relations: Everett is correct but don't
push his methodology sufficiently far). Isn't it?

Bruno



Le 17-avr.-08, à 15:02, Telmo Menezes a écrit :

>
> Yes, you're right. Still I think my argument holds. The production of
> the rifle, bullet and geiger counter system plus the geiger counter
> operation should produce more than enough entropy to compensate for
> the atom not decaying.
>
> On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 1:45 PM, Michael Rosefield
> <rosyatrandom.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>> It's not so much the input of energy, it's the production of more
>> entropy
>> where the energy is taken from.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 17/04/2008, Telmo Menezes <telmo.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>>>
>>> I would like to argue that in setting this experiment, energy is
>>> being
>>> expended to prevent the increase in entropy, albeit not in an obvious
>>> way.
>>>
>>> It is a trivial observation that systems may be devised that prevent
>>> increases in entropy by paying energy costs. One example is an ice
>>> cube in the freezer.
>>>
>>> In the case of this experiment, and assuming MWI, we are creating a
>>> scenario where the atomic decay is not possible from the
>>> experimenter's perspective. However, the experimenter is setting a
>>> system that includes the rifle and the geiger counter. Both these
>>> devices need energy to operate. Maybe it's just a convoluted version
>>> of the ice cube in the freezer?
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Telmo Menezes.
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 12:18 AM, nichomachus
>>>
>>> <Steven.Payne.Long.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>>>>
>>>
>>>> In the description of the quantum immortality gedanken experiment,
>>>> a
>>>> physicist rigs an automatic rifle to a geiger counter to fire into
>>>> him
>>>> upon the detection of an atomic decay event from a bit of
>>>> radioactive
>>>> material. If the many worlds hypothesis is true, the
>>>> self-awareness of
>>>> the physicist will continue to find himself alive after any length
>>>> of
>>>> time in front of his gun, since there exist parallel worlds where
>>>> the
>>>> decay does not occur.
>>>>
>>>> On a microscopic scale this is analogous to the observing a
>>>> reality in
>>>> which the second law of thermodynamics does not hold. for example,
>>>> since there is a non-zero probability that molecular interactions
>>>> will
>>>> result in a decrease in entropy in a particular sealed volume under
>>>> observation, there exist histories in which this must be observed.
>>>>
>>>> This is never observed. Therefore the MWI is shown to be false.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>
>
> >
>
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/


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Received on Thu Apr 17 2008 - 09:38:05 PDT

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