Topical Guide 935
Mark Dorset
Allusion
Uncertainty: And the Collapse of the Wave Function
Uncertainty: Sometimes Preferable to Certainty
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 20:
“For me, so long as I’m ignorant of the truth, there is the possibility that she is still alive, and I’d rather not have that possibility that she is alive collapse into a certainty that she is dead.”
We have here an oblique allusion to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and the transition from total uncertainty to partial certainty in the collapse of the wave function. I want to very clear here about Kraft’s attitude toward the preposterous belief that a conscious observer is essential to the collapse of the wave function. It’s one of his bêtes noires. Kraft’s attitude is precisely the attitude clearly and succinctly expressed by Jim Al-Khalili, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Surrey in The World According to Physics:
The uncertainty principle puts a limit on what we can measure and observe, but many people, even physicists, are prone to misunderstanding what this means.
Despite what you will find in physics textbooks, the formalism of quantum mechanics does not state that an electron cannot have a definite position and a definite speed at the same time, only that we cannot know both quantities at the same time. A related common misunderstanding is that humans must play some kind of crucial role in quantum mechanics: that our consciousness can influence the quantum world, or even bring it into existence when we measure it. This is nonsense. […]
[The] environment surrounding a quantum system, such as an atom, can itself do the ‘measuring.’ We don’t require a conscious observer.
Peter’s junior-high-science teacher, Miss Rheingold, understood this and taught it to her students.
Little Follies, “Where Do You Stop?”:
“So,” said Miss Rheingold […] “Let’s say we have a particle whizzing by— […] “In order to predict where this particle will be and how fast it will be moving, we have to know where it is and how fast it’s moving now. How do you suppose we would find that out?”
“We’d measure it,” I said, in the hope that Miss Rheingold wouldn’t forget me.
“Right,” she said. “And to do that, we have to find it. How do we usually find something?”
“We look for it,” said Matthew, competing, as we all were.
“Good,” said Miss rheingold. “And if it’s too dark to see it?”
“Shine a light on it,” I said.
“Very good, Peter,”she said. “That’s what we could do. We could shine a light on the particle. […] We want to be able to see the particle—or have some kind of detector see the particle—so that we can learn its speed and direction. So we decide to shine some light at it. We don’t want to use a lot of light. We don’t want to blast the poor little particle with a shotgun, do we, Nicky?”
“I guess not,” Nicky admitted, reluctantly.
“So let’s use as little light as we can. […] What is the smallest bit of light we can use?” […]
“One photon,” said Matthew.
“That’s right, Matthew,” said Miss Rheingold, “but […] even if we use only one photon, the point is this: the photon will disturb the particle.”
Memoirs: Not Excluding the Life of the Mind
Memoirs with Inventions
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 20:
“The second thing,” I said with an impish grin, “is that Mrs. Jerrold — Well, you see, Mrs. Jerrold — ”
Maybe it was my wry grin that made Miranda say, “You mean you made her up? But I thought these were your memoirs.”
“They are,” I said, “and everything that I include in my memoirs has happened to me.”
“I’m getting confused.”
“My memoirs are an account of the things that have happened in here” — I pointed to my head — “and in here” — I clasped my hands over my heart — “and out here” — I threw my arms wide to indicate the room, the hotel, the island, the world.
Luis Buñuel, My Last Sigh (translated by Abigail Israel):
Our imagination, and our dreams, are forever invading our memories; and since we are all apt to believe in the reality of our fantasies, we end up transforming our lies into truths. Of course, fantasy and reality are equally personal, and equally felt, so their confusion is a matter of only relative importance. . . . I am the sum of my errors and doubts as well as my certainties.
See also:
Allusion; Quotation TG 140, TG 455, TG 462, TG 502, TG 506, TG 532, TG 559, TG 583, TG 592, TG 626, TG 654, TG 657, TG 714, TG 735, TG 736, TG 738, TG 780, TG 781, TG 802, TG 829, TG 832
Memoirs: Memories, Inventions, Memoirs with Inventions, Sawdust TG 24; Motives for: L’Esprit de L’Escalier TG 73
Memory TG 57, TG 125, TG 574, TG 583; Memory, Faulty: Causes of, Results of TG 34, TG 133; Memory, Remembering, Forgetting, and the Search for Lost Time TG 22; Memory, Faulty, Causes of Distortion in TG 97; Memories: Relationships Among; Relationships to Present Perceptions TG 463; Selective TG 621; Memory: Prompt, Cue, Stimulus, or Catalyst for TG 792, TG 850; Memories: Conflicting TG 873
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