Friday, November 30, 2012

‘Spooky Action At A Distance’

Google it, or better yet, just go to the wiki. That was Einstein's derogatory (dismissive) phrase for what is now usually called quantum entanglement. But the phenomenon is real, has been experimentally demonstrated and is as controversial as ever when physicists talk about possible mechanisms. I've been reading about it in a rather old book (1995, "old" by physics standards) by John Gribbin titled Schrödinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality, billed as a successor to his relatively famous In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, but advanced beyond the span of years between the books. Kittens is filling in some gaps in my eternally spotty understanding of quantum mechanics, and it may be the perfect book for the purpose.

Quantum entanglement aside, I've always wanted to form a band and name it Spooky Action at a Distance, but someone has already used the name for an album title. Another great idea meets the reality that Someone Else Thought of it First...

5 comments:

  1. It seems to me that your idea is a perfect example of quantum entanglement.

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    Replies
    1. Ah, but karmanot, I was informed of the matter through an ordinary slower-than-light signal...

      Delete
  2. We must consider the String Theory variables in various dimensions, in which you might have known what you knew before you knew it. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. karmanot, if I understand correctly, in most flavors of string theory, all but three of the spatial dimensions are "curled up" into tiny spaces (something called "calabi-Yau manifolds," if I recall) each of which lives at a point in our familiar 3-space. Strings and various kinds of "branes" (short for "membranes" live in parts of this space, which is richly endowed with possibilities. My two favorite authors on the basics of string theory are Brian Greene (The Fabric of the Cosmos, The Hidden Reality... his other book is The Elegant Universe, well worth reading but not primarily about string theory) and Lisa Randall (Warped Passages). John Gribbin is also reliable, but I can't list his couple of dozen books here!

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