Wednesday 23 February 2011

Delayed Quantum Eraser?

Just a quick question. Can someone explain to me how it is that in the delayed quantum eraser experiment that viewing the screen detector (where either the interference pattern or 2 bands would be observed) after the photon that is destined to hit the screen has hit, but before its entangled pair is observed screw it up? I've been considering possible outcomes, not knowing what is actually observed when this is done. logically we should expect either an interference pattern or 2 bands whether it screws up or not. So, lets explore these options. if it screws up and we see 2 bands and then decide not to observe the recording photon do we not effectively have a standard double slit experiment with a photon that's behaving like a particle even though it isn't being observed? The other option is that we see an interference pattern, but then what if we decide to look at the recording photon, we have a photon that's behaving like a wave even though it IS being observed. now to me that's sounds absolutely absurd, but the fist option isn't much better. Based on that it seems as though in either case we can potentially cause a miss match of causality, not retrocausality, straight  up the wrong effect for that cause. So then how can this be? If the delayed quantum eraser experiment does not display macro retrocausality then it leaves us with the option to defy causality entirely? Sorry about the messy post, ill clean it up later, wrote this on my break at work.

Saturday 19 February 2011

The Science of Ethics

Ethics is not some divine tendency, it is an evolved trait selected because populations that develop ethical interactions do better off as a whole, just like any other evolutionary trait. We could say that Ethics is a result of religion, but suppose that ethics is an evolution of religion, a species if you like. If so, what did religion evolve from?

If you can accept all of this it is not hard to see then how religion evolved. Remember that natural selection doesn't ween out traits that aren't an advantage, only those that are a disadvantage in some way. So certain "junk" traits can be picked up along the way. For example, some form of hominid, before culture had developed decides to place a feather  in its hair. This trait is copied and despite the fact that it has no practical advantage, simply because it has no practical disadvantage, it is not evolved out.

Now, replication of an otherwise useless meme, combined with variance results in the evolution of this idea to a more advanced form. As this meme gets better at replicating itself it will recursively develop even better properties to encourage spread and to prevent the demise of the idea. I propose that this is how religion evolved. it got better at copying because it helps us to follow morals in our society, resulting in a more successful species. This gives us a tendency to help it replicate, analogous to a tree that wraps its seeds in fruit, the fruit is the reward, as is moral society.

Religion also has developed an immune system of sorts by evolving the concept of judgment, punishment for defying the ideas that encourage the propagation of religion. Religions are informational organisms in a symbiotic, some may say parasitic relationships with humans and our tendency to copy one another.