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Manfred comments on Timeless Physics Question - Less Wrong Discussion
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Comments (30)
If particles "move around," but the state doesn't change at all (because it's an energy eigenstate), then no robot made of particles will ever write anything new to its hard drive. The particles don't remember that they moved around - that's one of the whole points of quantum mechanics.
The particles are in that position. They are in that position because the boundary conditions of the universe are such that them being in that position has a relatively high amplitude.
If it's an energy eigenstate, it still has to work as a universe. It still has to have a past for every future and a future for every past. If it has the big bang, it will still have the people who remember existing that must inextricably follow. It's just that it has them all at once.
So the time-dependent Schroedinger equation is how the world works, but it doesn't do anything, and by some separate miracle the things that exist look like the time-dependent Schroedinger equation? :D
Sounds neat!
What do you mean?
It's only a miracle if it's false. It would be surprising for there to be a simpler explanation than the true one, but it's only expected for there to be a more complex one.
Why do you think I would say that the time-dependent Schrodinger equation doesn't do anything if the universe is in an energy eigenstate?
I guess I misread that. I still don't understand it.
The time-independent equation is how the world works. The time-dependent one also applies, since it's a more general case. The fact that it applies shows that the universe still looks like you'd expect it to, and it all adds up to normality.