Thursday, July 21, 2022

Does Reality Exist?

Remember the old saw about if a tree falls in the forest and nobody's there, did it happen? (Bad example, because the trees are there, the various forest critters are there, a forest by definition can't be empty, but it's the one everyone likes).

Physicists in China have come up with a quantum parlor trick called the Mermin-Peres game that demonstrates that if you use a specific set of measurements, you will always win.

Measuring reality appears to create it.

Philosophically, this implies that the universe can't exist without observers and from what we know, observers have to be alive.

So, what was alive right after the Big Bang? Or are we...or some other sapient species...creating the universe by observing it even though we can't exist without the universe? Eek, quantum headaches.

(You could also use this as a reasonable argument for the existence of God...or at least of some kind of Prime Mover. But I don't think the system requires God).

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