Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Does the universe exist if noone observes it?

Yakk · 03-25-2004, 02:45 PM

The short form of the answer is "sure, why not".

The long form is longer.

It depends what exist is.

It is convienient to assume we are poking away at some thingy that has some thingyness to it.

It is also convienient to assume that my perspective, or even my ability to percieve, has no real specialness to it. It keeps me sane and all.

As for Charlatan's cat arguement, using a convienient multiverse interpritation of the QM mathematics, the cat is always both alive and dead: just, when the box is shut, the alive containing box and the dead containing box are simply non-orthogonal to each other. "Opening the box" (and letting "information" in and out of it) causes the boxes to become orthogonal to each other, and no longer interact. It is convienient to assume that the box that becomes orthogonal to you when you look into the box still exists, based off the "I am nothing special" assumption.

In essence, it is convienient to assume that others existance and perceptions are more than just derived off my own perceptions and existance.

03-25-2004, 02:45 PM	#7 (permalink)
Yakk Wehret Den Anfängen! Location: Ontario, Canada	The short form of the answer is "sure, why not". The long form is longer. It depends what exist is. It is convienient to assume we are poking away at some thingy that has some thingyness to it. It is also convienient to assume that my perspective, or even my ability to percieve, has no real specialness to it. It keeps me sane and all. As for Charlatan's cat arguement, using a convienient multiverse interpritation of the QM mathematics, the cat is always both alive and dead: just, when the box is shut, the alive containing box and the dead containing box are simply non-orthogonal to each other. "Opening the box" (and letting "information" in and out of it) causes the boxes to become orthogonal to each other, and no longer interact. It is convienient to assume that the box that becomes orthogonal to you when you look into the box still exists, based off the "I am nothing special" assumption. In essence, it is convienient to assume that others existance and perceptions are more than just derived off my own perceptions and existance. __________________ Last edited by JHVH : 10-29-4004 BC at 09:00 PM. Reason: Time for a rest.