Viliam_Bur comments on [SEQ RERUN] On Being Decoherent - Less Wrong

3 Post author: MinibearRex 18 April 2012 05:06AM

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Comment author: shminux 18 April 2012 05:42:30AM -1 points [-]

But when we humans look at the sensor, it only seems to say "LEFT" or "RIGHT", never a mixture like "LIGFT". This, of course, is because we ourselves are made of particles, and subject to the standard quantum laws that imply decoherence. Under standard quantum laws, the final state is (particle left, sensor measures LEFT, human sees "LEFT") + (particle right, sensor measures RIGHT, human sees "RIGHT").

If there are two nearly identical copies of me in the same place, why is there no further interaction between them, resulting in my seeing "LIGFT"? (Well, now that I think of it, I do see "LIGFT", if only because EY wrote it.) Yes, I know, the magical password is "decoherence". How helpful.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 18 April 2012 08:01:28AM *  2 points [-]

If there are two nearly identical copies of me in the same place, why is there no further interaction between them

Your two copies differ by states of many neurons, that's billions of particles. They are not "nearly identical".

It is tempting to think about "one different thought" or "one different perception" as very small changes. But on particle level those are huge changes. A small change on a particle level is something you can't notice, and therefore you can't notice as those copies of you interact... and when the small change becomes big enough, your copies are already decoherent.

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