X-Message-Number: 11579
From: 
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 11:32:07 EDT
Subject: nudging photons & Deutsch

Some other stuff to follow if I get time, but now just a quick note on Deutsch
and waves.

Mike Perry says:

> The "wave" explanation of interference effects breaks down when only one
> photon at a time is involved. How does that one particle manage to interfere
> with itself? 

One answer, once popular, is that even a single photon has a wave associated 
with it. Some speak of a "pilot wave," or the previously fashionable 
"wavicle."

>A straightforward answer is that "something" is nudging that
> photon, one or more "ghost" photons from parallel universes.
 
"Nudging" is not an explanation. If it were, Newton's corpuscular theory of 
light could have been viable--photons interfere with each other by "nudging" 
each other.

> Bob adds,
 
 >>Unless I have been  totally oblivious, he has provided no explanation for
 >>interference.   
 
 >Starting on p. 41, you can read about an interesting variation of the famous
 >two-slit experiment, that is, a four-slit experiment, in which half of the
 >interference bands that you get with two slits are virtually cancelled out.
 >The explanation of this is, again, that "ghost" photons from parallel
 >universes are nudging "our" photons so they don't strike where they
 >otherwise would. So how is this "no explanation for interference"? (The
 >"ghosts" by the way, are just as "real" as the "real" particles, just parts
 >of other "real" universes than our own.)
 
Again, "nudging"is not an explanation. One would need details of the 
mechanism of interaction. Deutsch's book provides none, as far as I can see.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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