Ask A Genius 171 – The ‘Real World’ (Part 1)
Scott Douglas Jacobsen & Rick Rosner
May 18, 2017
[Beginning of recorded material]
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: To describe the real universe, you need a math, a logic, and set theory, to describe the real universe, and a real universe, especially in an IC universe is composed of finites.
So a set theory incorporating that would be better than standard set theory.
Rick Rosner: Well, set theory itself has infinities in it because it asserts things with infinite precision. Either something is in a set or not in a set. But when you look at an analogous situation in the quantum world, you can say an electron is or is not in the box.
It makes sense. it is one or the other. But when you apply quantum mechanics to this, either it is in the box, somewhat in the box, or not in the box but with this probability, or with this probability even though it is a closed box it will be this percent out of the box.
Within 10^42nd seconds, the electron is functioning in some of these ways. It has a probability wave associated with it. An electron can materialize at any point in the wave. The probability density can be at any point.
That probability density cloud is not exclusively located in the box. Some of it is located out of the box. There is a non-zero chance that the electron can materialize outside of the box. Once outside of the box, it is unlikely that it is going to be back in the box.
But anyway, unlike in set theory, where something is either all in or all out, the electron is not all in or all out. Nothing is all in or all out. Everything is just – or something is just – a thing or not with super high probabilities, so you can pretty much act as if an electron is all in or all out of the box.
Because it is or is not something with super big probabilities, to the extent that you can pretty much act as if the electron is all in or all out of the box because the probability that it is not in any given second is 1/10^47th, which means that in a practical sense you will never find that electron out of the box.
So you’re using an infinity that you shouldn’t strictly use as a matter of convenience because it is unlikely that it will ever cause a problem in that situation.
[End of recorded material]
Authors[1]
Rick Rosner
American Television Writer
Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Editor-in-Chief, In-Sight Publishing
Footnotes
[1] Four format points for the session article:
- Bold text following “Scott Douglas Jacobsen:” or “Jacobsen:” is Scott Douglas Jacobsen & non-bold text following “Rick Rosner:” or “Rosner:” is Rick Rosner.
- Session article conducted, transcribed, edited, formatted, and published by Scott.
- Footnotes & in-text citations in the interview & references after the interview.
- This session article has been edited for clarity and readability.
For further information on the formatting guidelines incorporated into this document, please see the following documents:
- American Psychological Association. (2010). Citation Guide: APA. Retrieved from http://www.lib.sfu.ca/system/files/28281/APA6CitationGuideSFUv3.pdf.
- Humble, A. (n.d.). Guide to Transcribing. Retrieved from http://www.msvu.ca/site/media/msvu/Transcription%20Guide.pdf.
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Rick Rosner 