I can’t be the only one who absolutely hates the idea of a particle having two states at once, right? Is it just a personal thing or is it tied somehow to the fact that autistic people generally have more binary thinking?
Forgive me if it’s a stupid question. I’m still trying to figure out how this all works and whether I’m autistic or not.
Don’t worry! Quantum Mechanics a scientific model we use to understand and work with reality, not reality itself.
The difference may seem subtle, but it is important. E.g. my bank account represents my money. At some point it may have a negative amount on it. I could model this as I own anti-money that obliterate real money when put in the same account. I can have a perfectly functioning personal economy with this interpretation. But in reality, it’s the bank having to cover some transactions for me when they shouldn’t have and are expecting I cover it with a deposit.
(Though I could probably ask for funding for a large currency collider to search for for the anti-money particle.)
The quantum model has many interpretations as to what underlying reality it may model. Some scientists like the “many worlds” interpretation where a particle is in one state in one universe and another state in another universe - at some point reality branches and one version of you continue in each universe (I think it’s silly). What you are describing is the “Copenhagen interpretation” which is popular but many scientists reject it. Some scientists don’t want to interpret reality from the model and just work with the math as math.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-manyworlds/
Okay, thank you! My first introduction to quantum mechanics was in a magazine when I was like 11 and they used the cat analogy and I’ve been confused ever since! I was just sitting there thinking, “But, the cat is only one or the other. It doesn’t matter whether you look at it. There’s no magic going on. It’s just random chance, right?”
(Maybe the fact that I was even wondering how quantum mechanics works at age eleven could be a sign that I’m autistic. Idk lol)
Haha, yes. The cat analogy was created intentionally to demonstrate that the Copenhagen Interpretation was ludicrous. Media, however, just… ran with it because it sounded cool.
It’s a good sign that you found it annoying. Erwin Schrödinger would be proud.
As for autistic, the resources in the sidebar may help you discover more.
Cool! I knew I wasn’t crazy! What do you think of the RAADS-R test? That’s the one I’ve taken and I got a score of 156 but I don’t quite trust tests as I can generally tell which way a question will sway the result and so I start doubting the validity of my answers.
