This is speculation based on inconcrete, and assumed understanding of quantum physics and consciousness. I mean not even the leading scholars studying these two fields understand them very well. I would not put this in the science channel. Philosophy? maybe but a very weak one.

me too.thats why i tagged it kaballistic,many parallels.in addition many of carl jung and R.D laing's work refer to the randomness quotient.
quantum theory fascinates me,the applicable math i find impossible,but the theory part absolutely rivets me to my seat.
and in all honesty,how much do we REALLY know?
einstein proved that time is relative and there is no travel faster than light,but BECAUSE of E=MC(2) quantum physics was born,and BOOM...
seems there can be travel faster than light,but only in theory.
ah...time travel..NEAT.
hell,quantum mechanics gave us the very computer's we are playing on.
thanks for the vote sir schmawy =)
In reply to this comment by schmawy:
I'll vote for it too, because it's intriguing. Although if any of this were true, science would have to eat itself.

Thanks for the note, I found another source so it's working now.

In reply to this comment by jacobrecker:
*dead

In regards to the quality of the video analogy, I've always found Dr. Quantum's physics videos extremely accessible and a model example of how to explain difficult science concepts.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Quantum-Physics-Double-Slit-Experiment-amazing-results
http://www.videosift.com/video/Dr-Quantum-Visits-a-2-Dimensional-World

Scholarships for beauty pageant winners? I don't recall there being a history, maths, or science questions.

How about giving scholarships to people who really deserve and need it? Not dumb, pampered bimbos, that couldn't find Iraq on a map, spell fascism, or comprehend the concept of quantum physics.

I made a reply to your post. From the bottom of my heart, none of it was meant to be rude or challenging. The sentiments and suggestions made by this video is what inspires new younger generations of einsteins and newtons to never be happy with their perceptions of things, and to always challenge them and hope for more.

I've gotten into arguments on the sift before over less than this (with utter jerks), but i hope you see that it was all from a good place.

In reply to this comment by Ornthoron:
Bah, I hate this. This movie takes some common thought experiments and twists them around so as to justify some quack New Age nonsense. The talk of dimensions here has absolutely nothing to do with quantum mechanics. During the whole movie they give well-known physical concepts new meaning, so that they retroactively justify their unsound theories. Beneath this clip is the unspoken promise that you can be so much more than you are today, if you only buy into the crap of the movie producers and let them help you on the way in the same manner Dr. Quantum helped Ms. Flat there.

The other clip on here from the same movie is worth a watch, though. In spite of the movie's flaws, that clip actually gives a good explanation of the double slit experiment. But the conclusions they draw from it are horrendous.

Bah, I hate this. This movie takes some common thought experiments and twists them around so as to justify some quack New Age nonsense. The talk of dimensions here has absolutely nothing to do with quantum mechanics. During the whole movie they give well-known physical concepts new meaning, so that they retroactively justify their unsound theories. Beneath this clip is the unspoken promise that you can be so much more than you are today, if you only buy into the crap of the movie producers and let them help you on the way in the same manner Dr. Quantum helped Ms. Flat there.

The other clip on here from the same movie is worth a watch, though. In spite of the movie's flaws, that clip actually gives a good explanation of the double slit experiment. But the conclusions they draw from it are horrendous.

A Hwhite hole tastes better with cool hwhip..

In all seriousness though, I believe Dr. Michio Kaku will one day discover a real breakthrough in quantum physics.. I mean, he's been contemplating parallel universes since the age of 8! And he's also fun to listen to. All those analogies he used were hilarious.

The religious argues that God exists because I believe he exists. The atheist argues that he isn't satisfied because he doesn't believe that belief as sufficient.

No. part of the atheist's argument is that belief itself is not sufficient grounds for believing something. That is an argument against circular reasoning. the atheist equalent would be to say "I doubt so strongly that there is a god, that simply based on my doubt alone, God cant exist" I have never heard an atheist use that kind of reasoning, and certainly not Sam Harris.

But the whole theist "argument" usually boils down to arguments like that. Really basic fallacies like :
"I believe it because I really, really believe it"
"I believe it because millions believe it"
"I believe it because its in the book, and the book says its true"
"I believe it because its personally consoling to me"

Where as the atheist viewpoint is simply:
"None of these seems like good enough reasons to believe anything."

Which is by far the LEAST arrogant position. Like the religious, we are prepared to believe just about anything, we just need better reasons. We tend to accept scientific conclusions, and sometimes they easily outdo religious fairytales in being the most wild and wacky claims (such as quantum physics) but we accept it based on these claims ability to withstand constant scientific scrutiny, like peer-reviewing, competition, testing, new observations, predictions etc.

I'm merely quoting my quantum physics professor.

Yes its a very LOW probability, but the probability exists. Quantum mechanics also says that if you run full speed into a wall enough times, one of those times you will pass right through it.

QM states that all particles exist in a statistical "distribution" rather than at a particular location. It is only when you measure the particle that the location becomes fixed in space-time. This principle allows electrons to "tunnel" through a thin oxide (high probability with applied voltage bias and/or temperature), and it also allows all the particles in your body to "tunnel" through a wall at the same time (infinitely low probability).

Likewise, there exists a probability that all the particles which form a "cat" could be measured in such an arrangement (because each particle exists as a statistical distribution) that they form a "horse," if only for a fleeting moment. Again INFINITELY low probability, but it does exist.

Mindf*ck eh? And I'm asserting that evolution is even harder to truly comprehend than this!


"And no, quantum mechanics doesn't say anything about cats transforming into horses. Quantum mechanics says that quantum particles exist in all possible states at all times unless they are observed. You'll be nominated for a golden crocoduck yourself if you keep saying things like that."

>> ^DrPawn:
This video is a complete fraud.


You're absolutely right.

This film was a ruse. Nothing but a cheap tuxedo on their new-age junk-science.

^That's a 0.03% difference. No magic or quantum physics necessary for this one, just a lot of uncounted undervotes. Is that the entirety of the argument? You guys aren't even trying anymore.

>> ^Sketch:
Yeah, but quantum physics states that all 3 doors contain both a goat and a car until you open them.
Or something like that.


Quantum Mechanics wise it should work something like this:
(without the math sort of, more of a thought experiment)

At the beginning Bob shows you the doors to pick from. To you all three doors are in a state of superposition (it could be a goat or car).

Bob of course knows the answer so nothing neat for him.

You pick the door that you think is the car thus "measuring/observing/changing" the doors state. This coincidently affects Bob who's decision was in superposition (deciding which goat to show).

Bob makes his choice and "measures" the door by opening it, allowing you to eliminate one door.

You also know that the door you picked is no longer in superposition as you have picked it and Bob's outside influence destroys it's superposition.

The last door of course to you is still in superposition as it hasn't been opened or "measured" by you in any way.

At the beginning as they all had superposition each door had a 33% chance of being the car and 66% chance of being a goat. When you make your choice for the door Bob's knowledge destroys it's state of superposition and can now only be one thing, not either. The other door is opened as well destroying it's superposition and confirming it's fate.

The last door however, is still in superposition from your point of view. The door still has it's initial setup of 66% goat and 33% door. But, since Bob has measured the system from his point of view it has changed the states the doors were in (on the second opening).

Now that you know which door has one goat and the other door which IS a goat or car you have the last door which is in superposition. As the system changed (and no you can't start a multiple step problem in a closed system and look at the last step and call out 50/50, this is a procedural problem, breaking it up into a separate system would be akin to saying acceleration and a vector are the same thing) it altered the probabilities initially setup. One door can only be a goat or car, making it 33/33. The door that is in superposition though still has it's sate intact therefore the chance is 66/66 respectively.

But, you know you have one goat already out. So by inderect observation you can now see what the probability for each door is. The door measured by Bob has a (goat/car) 33/33 chance of being either. The door in superposition can now be updated without destroying it's state do to the other door. It's chances are now (goat/car) 33/66. I'd pick the door in superposition.

That was a little long winded hopefully I made it understandable.





Time for some cake!

Nice post; it was a pleasure to read. Thanks.

In reply to this comment by Farhad2000:
Coming from you QM that's just hilarious, especially since you have said that my entire region should be nuked countless times. I mean the middle east doesn't really dictate shit in the world over the US. But it's cool you do have a valid point. Yes I was angry as well.

Regarding the litany of comments trying to understand why and how this person came to be this way, its simple, there is no real focus on the rights and civic responsibilities of the citizenry in the US. Before you all get railed up and say this was cut and pasted into a clip to make news BS, this point of view has been pushed around and expressed countless times, its like endemic now.

It's a given to be thought controlled into trusting your government, only through a seasoned analytical education looking at maybe just the last 50 years of political history can you readily understand how the US government in most cases works against it's citizenry rather then for it (bay of pigs, star wars, vietnam, watergate, countless shit form both sides of the aisle).

But we don't need analytical thought provoking education anymore, we need fact machines that are just enough to earn a GED and maybe work a computer to succeed. Half of your education now is based more around studying towards test taking rather then actual information or processing that information, since accumulation of facts is not the same as actually thinking through those.

I mean look at something like Discovery Channel, before you could actually watch that a learn something new about Quantum Physics or the Cuban revolution, now it's all a sitcom about busting some dumb fucking myth or Orange County bikers or some rebuild of some fucking car.

But it doesn't matter really though, for most people in the US the only place that exists for them is the US. That's why it's so easy to rally around bombing some poor third world nation from the bronze age back to the stone age, its so far and unimportant and our media paints such a nice picture of it.

This all connects back to belief and comfort, its comforting to let your blind belief in God or the FSM dictate your life, because then you aren't responsible for your actions, because then everything becomes preordained.

Think how comforting it is to know that God made 9/11 happen because America is a sinful nation... rather then a passive aggressor who has push into action countless covert and non covert military operations in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan because it thought it was doing the right thing without actually thinking of possible blow back stemming from supporting religious nut case such as the Taliban.

What's easier to believe and swallow? God or Facts?

Yes there are many people in the US who are not like this person and are actually aware, and engage in educated discourse from both sides of the coin but really that doesn't count at all for me.

Because this person is demonstrating a total lack of BASIC FACTUAL knowledge about what has happened in this (once great) nation for the last 8 years. I mean seriously. WTF. That's just intolerable, its like decades later we will all do an about face and declare Bush some kind of great war hero, even though he terminated some of the most basic tenants of what make America a kick ass nation (no torture, haebus corpus, no spying on its own citizens and so on)

Coming from you QM that's just hilarious, especially since you have said that my entire region should be nuked countless times. I mean the middle east doesn't really dictate shit in the world over the US. But it's cool you do have a valid point. Yes I was angry as well.

Regarding the litany of comments trying to understand why and how this person came to be this way, its simple, there is no real focus on the rights and civic responsibilities of the citizenry in the US. Before you all get railed up and say this was cut and pasted into a clip to make news BS, this point of view has been pushed around and expressed countless times, its like endemic now.

It's a given to be thought controlled into trusting your government, only through a seasoned analytical education looking at maybe just the last 50 years of political history can you readily understand how the US government in most cases works against it's citizenry rather then for it (bay of pigs, star wars, vietnam, watergate, countless shit form both sides of the aisle).

But we don't need analytical thought provoking education anymore, we need fact machines that are just enough to earn a GED and maybe work a computer to succeed. Half of your education now is based more around studying towards test taking rather then actual information or processing that information, since accumulation of facts is not the same as actually thinking through those.

I mean look at something like Discovery Channel, before you could actually watch that a learn something new about Quantum Physics or the Cuban revolution, now it's all a sitcom about busting some dumb fucking myth or Orange County bikers or some rebuild of some fucking car.

But it doesn't matter really though, for most people in the US the only place that exists for them is the US. That's why it's so easy to rally around bombing some poor third world nation from the bronze age back to the stone age, its so far and unimportant and our media paints such a nice picture of it.

This all connects back to belief and comfort, its comforting to let your blind belief in God or the FSM dictate your life, because then you aren't responsible for your actions, because then everything becomes preordained.

Think how comforting it is to know that God made 9/11 happen because America is a sinful nation... rather then a passive aggressor who has push into action countless covert and non covert military operations in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan because it thought it was doing the right thing without actually thinking of possible blow back stemming from supporting religious nut case such as the Taliban.

What's easier to believe and swallow? God or Facts?

Yes there are many people in the US who are not like this person and are actually aware, and engage in educated discourse from both sides of the coin but really that doesn't count at all for me.

Because this person is demonstrating a total lack of BASIC FACTUAL knowledge about what has happened in this (once great) nation for the last 8 years. I mean seriously. WTF. That's just intolerable, its like decades later we will all do an about face and declare Bush some kind of great war hero, even though he terminated some of the most basic tenants of what make America a kick ass nation (no torture, haebus corpus, no spying on its own citizens and so on)