tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26473046.post6970424220435402594..comments2023-09-10T08:52:23.170-07:00Comments on The Scenic Route: The View of a devout Heterodox JewJack Kesslerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03905633991921890386noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26473046.post-75334026938064498482012-01-09T20:00:27.719-08:002012-01-09T20:00:27.719-08:00As I understand the two slit experiment, Nick Dang...As I understand the two slit experiment, Nick Danger is exactly wrong. The presence of a detector changed the result. The physical reality was different when observed than it was when not observed. Both results were measurable real world phenomena. Both really happened. They were clearly distinguishable and not subjective. Feynman put a variable detector on one of the slits and found that the result varied with the sensitivity of the detector.<br /><br />There are a number of other bizarrenesses with the two slit experiment. One is the fact that so long as we do not know which slit the photon went through, there is an interference pattern even when we guarantee that only one photon can go through the slits at any time. If that is what Mr. D is referring to, I agree. It is what it is.<br /><br />But the observer vs. no observer results are a different matter. The observer problem in the two slit experiment to me seems to require a universal observer. Or even a Universal Observer. <br /><br />Schrodinger's cat suggests to me that things do not reach a determinate condition until observed. The cat is neither alive nor dead until the box is opened and looked at. It is my intuitive sense that cause-and-effect requires that there be a determinate state before it can be changed to another state. I cannot think of why that should be so, it just seems that way.Jack Kesslerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03905633991921890386noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26473046.post-10077792111257879472012-01-09T01:26:25.464-08:002012-01-09T01:26:25.464-08:00Jack, it was photons, not electrons, in the slit e...Jack, it was photons, not electrons, in the slit experiment. It is not "physical reality" of things that depends upon presence or absence of an observer, but observations of them. We then base our concepts of physical reality based upon our observations, which may or may not "make sense", which in turn is based upon our biological sensory information of the macro world, not the micro world. The micro world, which operates very differently from the macro world, can not possibly "make sense" to us. It just is what it is, and we should not extrapolate its behavior to the macro world which we inhabit, no matter how bizarre we discover it to be.Nick Dangernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26473046.post-78056996525364852572011-12-17T12:03:32.490-08:002011-12-17T12:03:32.490-08:00It is a convention in software publishing to assig...It is a convention in software publishing to assign decimal numbers to software versions like Firefox 8.0.1 or Excel 10.6871. Logically the first version should be 1.0 but often, when a version is published before the programmers are done with it, it is given a lower number like Shazzam 0.5a. <br /><br />On that convention I am a sub-monotheist, a believer in Hashem version 0.78. You and Job are believers in Hashem version n.n, where n is any number at all.Jack Kesslerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03905633991921890386noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26473046.post-62897766095450780212011-12-17T11:53:59.116-08:002011-12-17T11:53:59.116-08:00What Harvey says is certainly the lesson of the Bo...What Harvey says is certainly the lesson of the Book of Job. But it is too much for human beings to bear for us to worship the author of evil. And not just the evil in the world but also the evil and misery in our own lives. <br /><br />The hardest line in Job, perhaps in the whole bible, is where Job says, "Still I will worship Him, though the slay me." Whole-hearted worship requires a self-abnegation I cannot master. Yet.<br /><br />Rita wishes you and your family a Happy Hannukah and loves the thank you notes your daughters sent. Me too.Jack Kesslerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03905633991921890386noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26473046.post-35433277985065754142011-12-17T09:49:06.743-08:002011-12-17T09:49:06.743-08:00Actually Jack, evil is part of Hashem. If He is i...Actually Jack, evil is part of Hashem. If He is in everything he is in both good and evil. He is in contradictions. Hashem is the One Who is called the Reconciler of Opposites. In Noach He is "the One Who fashions light, and creates darkness, Who makes peace and creates evil; I am the Lord, Who makes all these," In your most vile and evil thoughts, God is there.Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17404832549954266409noreply@blogger.com