Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 177 Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

Chen Muwu's brain was running fast, but in the end he couldn't figure out which animal the British and Germans hated the most.

There is no other way but to invite veteran actors.

It's just a pity that the most famous cat in the world has been locked in the same black box by different people for two consecutive lives.

"Dr. Einstein, can I change things a little bit about this thought experiment you just proposed?"

"Of course no problem, Dr. Chen, please do yourself."

After getting permission, Chen Muwu first erased the dotted line hemisphere B, then picked up the chalk and drew a line on the hemispherical screen to divide the screen into two.

"Dr. Einstein, I plan to use your ideas to continue talking.

"I want to use a plane passing through the center of the sphere and perpendicular to the first screen to divide this hemispherical screen into two small screens, 1 and 2.

"So now, is the probability of this photon reaching each part [-]/[-]?"

"Yes."

"Well, I will continue to modify this screen next. I hired a talented electrician with incomparably exquisite craftsmanship to help me transform Screen 1 into a circuit switch.

"As soon as a photon hits the screen 1, then the switch of the circuit turns off.

"The other side of the circuit is actually an electromagnet with extremely strong magnetic force. The magnetic force generated by the electromagnet can suspend a heavy claw anvil in the air.

"And directly below this claw anvil is a well-sealed glass bottle filled with the highly toxic substance hydrocyanic acid vapor, and in the middle of the glass bottle is a cat.

"If a photon irradiates this screen 1, the circuit controlling the electromagnet will be broken, and then the electromagnet will also lose its magnetic force, and then the claw anvil will fall from the air, smashing the glass bottle placed below, and the glass bottle The highly toxic substance released after being crushed will poison the cat.

"After finishing this transformation, I put all other experimental devices except the photon source switch into a closed and light-proof box.

"Now comes the exciting moment of starting the experiment. I stood outside the airtight box, started the photon source, and let it emit a photon to the small hole.

"You also agreed just now that there is a half probability that this photon will hit screen 1, and at the same time, after a series of fast chain reactions, the cat will be poisoned to death.

"However, due to the existence of the other half of the probability, when the photon hits screen 2, the cat will be alive and kicking, without any effect.

"But all of this happened in this closed box. If you don't open the box, you don't know whether the cat is dead or alive.

"Or, for me outside the box, the cat is in a dead-or-alive superposition."

"Only when I opened the box, I observed the state inside the box, and the cat's wave function collapsed, could it become a living cat or a dead cat."

Chen Muwu abandoned the device that triggered the Geiger counter by atomic decay at that time, but directly improved on the basis of Einstein's thought experiment, and introduced the unlucky cat.

Einstein wanted to speak just now, but Chen Muwu, who had predicted his prediction, interrupted him directly.

However, after listening to Chen Muwu's talk about cats being in a superposition state of death or life, Einstein felt that his statement was really absurd.

Chen Muwu saw Einstein frowned again, his throat moved, and he was about to speak.

"Dr. Einstein, I know you are in a hurry to know whether the cat in the black box is dead or alive. But please take it easy.

"I haven't finished this thought experiment, there is another part.

"In the experiment just now, I also had a very anxious friend Albert, who also did not agree with my statement, thinking that the cat in the box is either alive or dead, and it is absolutely impossible to be in a superposition of dead or alive state.

"So this impatient Albert, I hope I can do this experiment again, but the difference from the first experiment is that he put on an isolation suit, a gas mask and sufficient oxygen, and followed the cat They were locked together in that black box that was isolated from the outside world.

"After all this was in place, I stayed outside the black box and activated the photon source again, which fired another photon into the hole.

"Because this time, I also stayed outside the black box, so I still don't know whether the cat inside the box is dead or alive.

"For me, the cat in the box is still in a dead or alive superposition.

"But the difference is that Albert is already in the box. As long as the device is activated, he will be able to know immediately whether the cat in the box is dead or alive as long as the device is activated. in a superposition state.

"If there is a telephone line between me and him, then at this time Albert can call me on the phone, 'Chen, the cat is still alive!' Or 'Chen, unfortunately , the cat is dead.'

"The only difference between me and Albert is whether we observed the cat in the box.

"His consciousness affected the wave function of the system, while mine did not."

After speaking these words, Chen Muwu finally stopped his eloquence, and returned to the elegant and easy-going state of a modest gentleman.

Seeing him like this, Einstein on the other side of the podium understood that it seemed that Chen Muwu had finished his thought experiment, and now it was his turn.

"Dr. Chen, the content of your speech is very novel, I feel that the reaction speed of my brain can hardly keep up with your speech speed.

"Now, I don't want to discuss with you whether the collapse of the wave function is right or wrong. I don't want to entangle whether the poor cat is dead or alive. I also don't want to discuss whether the collapse of the wave function is determined by consciousness. Not a kind of idealism.

"I forced my brain to follow your train of thought, only to find such a problem.

"That's why I think there seems to be another paradox in your thought experiment.

"Whether you say that you are conscious is the only determinant of whether the wave function collapses or not.

"Maybe for the whole system, you are the ultimate observer. When you realize the result, the wave function of the whole system is finally collapsed.

"But don't forget that Albert, like you, is also a conscious person, and his consciousness can also affect the cat's wave function.

"Now the question is, when did the poor cat's wave function collapse? Was it the moment Albert realized it, or was he telling you the news and then you realized it? Moment?
"If it's the latter, then as conscious beings, why are the statuses of the two of you different?
"Could it be that you are more advanced, and to you, Albert is just like the photographic plates and telescopes before, and he is just an unconscious measuring tool?"

wonderful.

Some people applauded after Einstein's speech, and even Chen Muwu couldn't help but want to applaud a few times.

I didn't expect Einstein to react so quickly to the loophole he deliberately left, and continued to go deep into his trap.

"Dr. Einstein, your point of view is very sharp, and this is indeed the imprecise part of this thought experiment.

"So I would now like to make a correction to that.

"I just cut that goddamn phone cord, there's no instant communication between me and Albert now.

"So after I triggered the switch of the photon source, if I didn't open the box, I still didn't know whether the cat in the box was dead or alive.

"But for Albert in the box, as long as he keeps his eyes on the cat, he will definitely know whether the cat is dead or alive before I open the box.

"Then here comes the problem that, for Albert, the cat can only be in the living and dead states; but for me, the cat is still in the superposition of dead or alive.

"Only after I open the box will I know if the cat is alive or dead.

"If I agree with Albert's observations, then of course it's fine.

"But if my observations and Albert's are inconsistent, could it be said that the cat died suddenly, or came back to life?

"It's impossible to even think about it!

"For this, I can still offer a new explanation, a new possibility.

"That is, people and human consciousness are equivalent, and there is no priority of who is more noble than the other.

"At the moment when Albert in the box observes, it is not that the cat's wave function collapses, and the entire universe is divided into two, namely the living cat universe and the dead cat universe.

"In the live cat universe, after I open the box, the cat must be a live cat, and in the dead cat universe, the cat must also be a dead cat.

"In other words, with every observation, our universe splits up again.

"If the schematic diagrams of these universes are drawn in the four-dimensional space-time, then they are all independent of each other and parallel to the time axis.

"So, I call them parallel universes."

First, observation will lead to the collapse of the wave function, then only human consciousness will cause the wave function to collapse, and finally, human observation will cause the universe to split into several parallel universes.

The three completely different explanations given by Chen Muwu became more deviant each time.

The audience, including Einstein, felt like they were not on a roller coaster, but swooped all the way along the radius of the earth, reaching the deepest part of hell.

Some people even wondered whether Chen Muwu had taken the wrong medicine, and some thought that Chen Muwu's brain had been overdeveloped. Although he had made many genius-like inventions and discoveries in physics in more than two years, it was also true for him. It caused a great backlash to make him so crazy.

The discussion in the venue became louder and louder, but basically no one could understand it, and no one could agree with Chen Muwu's views.

The entire British Royal Society was even more shocked than when the Holy See heard of the "heliocentric" theory for the first time.

Einstein, who was standing aside, always wanted to say something, but after organizing the language for a long time this time, he found that he couldn't say anything.

In the original plan of the awards ceremony, ample 15 minutes were reserved for Einstein to deliver his acceptance speech.

But it took more than an hour for two people to do this.

The moderator of the meeting, who was supposed to be Einstein's English translator, had no time to intervene in the debate between the two.

After listening to what the two of them were talking about, he gradually woke up from the stupefaction.

The host thinks that if things go on like this, maybe the whole morning will be wasted on these questions that are too illusory.

They can no longer treat the award ceremony as a stage for farce. Action must be taken.

"Dr. Einstein, Dr. Chen, because we have limited time for this award ceremony, it is really impossible for the two of you to have further academic discussions.

"Dr. Einstein, please hold your certificate and medal.

"Dr. Chen, please step down and rest for a while.

"Everyone, let's take a temporary break for 5 minutes. After that, the awards ceremony will continue."

The host thoughtfully set aside a few minutes for everyone to rest, hoping to let everyone get out of shock, doubt, anger and other emotions.

Einstein, who was completely sleepy, walked back to his seat from the stage like a walking dead.

But Chen Muwu's return journey was extremely difficult.

On the seats on both sides of the aisle, questions were thrown at him one after another, and some people even blocked the way altogether.

At this time, among the most gentlemanly people in the most gentlemanly country in the world, no one thinks about whether they should maintain a gentlemanly demeanor.

The only one who is smiling, polite, and gentlemanly, may be Chen Muwu, but he is also the chief culprit who drives these gentlemen crazy.

Seeing that if Chen Muwu returned to his own seat, it might take more time than the 5-minute break, the host decided to do it to the end and invited Chen Muwu who was blocked back to the backstage.

Anyway, he's going to be on stage to receive the award later, so it's better to just wait in the background.

……

After the turmoil, the award ceremony is finally getting back on track.

A few more medals were awarded, and it was the turn of the Hughes Medal won by Chen Muwu.

The award speech given by the Royal Society of Britain this time is much more generous than that of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

They no longer praised and criticized in secret, but directly stated all the achievements Chen Muwu had made in physics in the past two or three years.

"Because of his outstanding contributions in optics, statistical mechanics, and atomic physics, the Royal Society decided to award the Hughes Medal in 1925 to Dr. Chen Muwu.

"Dr. Chen, now please come to the stage to accept the award."

Chen Muwu came out from the backstage and took his medal and certificate from the host.

"Dr. Chen, do you have any acceptance speeches to add?"

The subtext in the host's words is, you get off the stage as soon as you win the award, and don't make any more fools.

But Chen Muwu was not.

"Okay, since you've said that, let me say a few more words."

The host wanted to slap himself twice. Why is his mouth so cheap?
It seems that now Chen Muwu was reluctant to talk about it, but because of his invitation, he was too kind.

"Thank you to the Royal Society for accepting me as a member and awarding me this year's Hughes Medal.

"Just because of Dr. Einstein's invitation, I have already taken up a lot of everyone's time, (his subtext is "Don't blame me, blame Einstein if you want to blame"), so I just want to say a few words now , and please rest assured that I will never talk about that cat again this time.”

Hearing the promise in the second half of Chen Muwu's sentence, at least half of the people in the venue either opened their mouths or recited it silently in their hearts. They all said in unison: "Thank God..."

"Now I will tell you a relatively easy thing. Even though some of you here may not have read the second paper I published, I believe that everyone has more or less learned about time travel in newspapers. One thing. After all, at this time two years ago, time travel was one of the most discussed topics on the streets.

"On the issue of the directional choice of time travel, I think it should be the time travel back to the past, which is more fascinating.

"Because in the past days, everyone has more or less regrets, and it would be great if we could go back and make up for it.

"Now, I ask everyone to consider such a thing. If one day in the future, human beings really research the technology of time travel.

"There was a man named John Smith who became a time traveler.

"After he experienced the changes brought by this new technology to people's lives, one day he had a whim, if he went back decades and killed his grandmother who hadn't met his grandfather at that time, then There will be no more mothers of my own.

"And without my own mother, I shouldn't have myself anymore.

"But it was he who killed his unmarried grandmother.

"Without John Smith, he wouldn't be able to travel back in time and kill his grandmother.

"Or does it mean that at the moment he killed his grandmother, John Smith would disappear at the same time, leaving only a grandmother's body and a knife that killed her in the whole world?"

Chen Muwu raised another philosophical problem that violated causality.

The audience in the audience began to chatter again, but after listening to Chen Muwu's explanation, Einstein inspired his fighting spirit again.

He didn't raise his hand at all, stood up from the first row and said: "Dr. Chen, the matter you brought up violates the law of causality. Does that mean that time travel, at least going back to the past time?" Travel, is that an impossible thing?"

"Dr. Einstein, before today, it is indeed possible to understand like you."

Although it is said that fishermen will never fly in the air, but every time it is this big fish that catches the bait, Chen Muwu feels a little embarrassed.

"But, maybe we can also think about it from another angle. What if parallel universes exist?

"From the moment John Smith started time travel back in time, he had already left the universe A he was in before, but started a new parallel universe B.

"In this universe B, he killed his grandmother who hadn't met his grandfather, so in universe B, there will be no one named John Smith in the future.

"But for John Smith from universe A, all this is perfectly fine, he is the grandson of the grandmother in universe A, and he is not affected by the grandmother who disappeared in universe B.

"So he won't disappear at all, but can continue to exist at the murder scene intact, waiting for the police officer Lestrade who has been instructed by Holmes or Chen George to finally arrest him and bring him to justice."

"Absurd! Absurd! Dr. Chen, your parallel universe theory is too absurd! According to your statement, the measurement will cause the states of each branch to coexist, which means that the universe will continue to split during multiple measurements. However, we Now no observer can feel the coexistence of each branch state."

"Dr. Einstein, your rhetoric is like the group of people who opposed Copernicus' heliocentric theory.

"They, like you, think that people on the earth can't feel the movement of the earth, so what Copernicus said, the earth is moving around the sun, is completely nonsense.

"After that, Galileo explained from the point of view of inertia why people on the earth do not feel that the earth is moving.

"It is the subtlety of a successful theory that the theory itself can explain the apparent contradiction between its predictions and experience.

"Time is limited, and this is the end of my acceptance speech. I would like to thank the Royal Society again for awarding me this Hughes Medal."

After Chen Muwu finished speaking, he bowed and left the stage. The host reacted very quickly this time, and he directly invited Chen Muwu into the backstage, without giving him another chance to have a passionate collision with the audience.

This time the reaction from the audience was even more intense.

Why did Chen Muwu talk about time travel for a long time, but in the end it turned to the parallel universe again!

Taking advantage of the commotion in the audience, Chen Muwu slipped backstage to his room, packed his luggage, left the Royal Society, and went straight to King's Cross Station.

He bought a ticket for the nearest train to Cambridgeshire.

Even though he was already sitting in the first class compartment, Chen Muwu was still very excited.

At the award ceremony, he talked about the various interpretations of quantum mechanics that will develop over the next few decades.

Even after 100 years, no one can tell which is correct.

In this day and age, it is even more king bomb.

Chen Muwu's remarks can't be said to be "one stone stirs up a thousand waves", it is almost like "a big Ivan evaporated tens of thousands of tons of water vapor".

The locomotive sounded its whistle, and the carriage moved forward slowly.

It's really exciting to run after pretending.

(End of this chapter)