1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 590 Can human consciousness affect reality? Is the double-slit experiment terrifying? An authoritative online rumor refutation! Wrong, wrong, wrong!

In the scientific community of later generations, it is generally recognized that there are three major unsolved mysteries.

They are: the origin of the universe, the origin of life, and the origin of consciousness.

There is a progressive relationship between these three unsolved mysteries.

The origin of the universe is the origin of matter. Why can the universe be born from nothing?

There are currently many theories that have provided explanations, and the most mainstream and widely accepted one is the Big Bang Theory.

But it should be noted that the Big Bang is just a conjecture.

The origin of the universe remains an unsolved mystery.

There is matter in the universe, but all of it is inorganic.

So how did inorganic matter become organic matter and continue to evolve into life?

This is the question of the origin of life.

The theory of evolution simply explains the transformation from life A to life B.

However, no one knows the specific principles that govern the transition from non-life to life.

There are also many hypotheses at present, such as the primordial soup model.

The model believes that the early Earth environment was like a pot of soup, with all kinds of atoms in it, and all kinds of temperature, pressure and other conditions.

Because atoms are constantly moving, various chemical reactions occur.

At some point, one in a billion, carbon and hydrogen atoms combined to form the simplest organic matter.

Then, after a long period of time, more and more organic matter was generated.

At this time, the "Earth Soup" is no longer filled with lifeless inorganic matter, but is full of organic matter.

But the mere presence of organic matter is not enough, because they are still just non-living macromolecules.

In a sense, organic matter simply has a more complex molecular structure than inorganic matter.

There must be a critical tipping point in the transition from non-living organic matter to life.

There is currently no theory to explain it.

Of course, there is also a hypothesis that the organic matter on Earth was introduced by aliens, such as the body turning into a meteorite and hitting the Earth after death.

But since aliens are also organic life forms, how did they come into being?

Therefore, even if aliens really exist, the origin of life remains a mystery.

It is somewhat understandable that a bunch of random atoms come together to form vibrant life.

After all, atoms themselves are moving, and when a large number of atoms are combined, they will definitely form more complex movements.

But there is a difference between life and life.

The biggest difference between the simplest single-celled life form Paramecium and the most complex multi-celled life form humans is consciousness!

When we talk about consciousness, we usually refer specifically to human consciousness.

Although some large primates and even plant life have consciousness, human consciousness is undoubtedly the most special.

So how does human consciousness arise?
This is the mystery of the origin of consciousness.

It is a bit too strange that a bunch of unconscious atoms combined together can produce consciousness.

There is absolutely no essential difference between the atoms that make up a human being and the atoms that make up a stone.

Then why can humans develop consciousness but stones cannot?
From the emergence of life to consciousness, it is another qualitative leap.

Nothingness → atoms → inorganic matter → organic matter → life → consciousness.

Among the three unsolved mysteries, the origin of consciousness is the most mysterious.

If you think about it carefully, it seems that the birth of the entire universe is to hatch the ultimate consciousness.

Perhaps, in the eyes of some indescribable existence, consciousness is more precious than the universe that gave birth to it.

Human beings have never stopped studying consciousness, but progress has been extremely slow.

The birth of quantum mechanics seemed to bring a glimmer of hope.

Some people believe that consciousness is related to quantum effects and is an activity that occurs at the quantum level.

For example, the 2020 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Penrose, believes that: "Consciousness is a quantum superposition state!"

In the human brain, there are some very tiny structures: microtubules.

Penrose believed that microtubules were where quantum effects occurred and were processed.

The biggest difference between the quantum world and the macroscopic world is the superposition state.

In the quantum world, a person wearing red clothes and wearing white clothes can exist at the same time and be superimposed on each other.

In the macroscopic world, a person can either wear red clothes or white clothes, only one of them.

However, although this cannot be done in the macroscopic world, human consciousness can “think it out”.

Therefore, Penrose believes that consciousness and quantum are deeply connected.

Of course, the above are just wild guesses.

And now, the experiment that Li Qiwei is going to do is related to another incredible ability of consciousness.

That is: whether human consciousness can affect reality!
At this moment, everyone was full of curiosity.

"According to what Professor Bruce said, if we use a detector to detect how electrons pass through the double slits, will electrons still pass through the double slits?"

Someone said uncertainly:

"I think it will happen again, right?"

"This detector is equivalent to the human eye."

"If we look at the electrons with our eyes, will there be no interference between them?"

"Doesn't that mean that consciousness affects reality?"

"impossible!"

However, Bohr, Heisenberg and others smiled confidently.

They have fully understood the blues interpretation and can apply it.

Even without watching the experimental process, you can guess the result.

"Because Professor Bruce has already explained the answer."

"After this experiment is done, the principle of complementarity will be impeccable!"

“It has nothing to do with consciousness.”

Einstein smiled bitterly, although he did not recognize the principle of complementarity.

But he could guess the result.

“Don’t be misled by the word observer.”

However, Schrödinger's eyes flashed with brilliance!
He was always thinking about the problem of observer and measurement.

Man, cat, detector.

All three can be seen as observers, but humans have a very special consciousness!

What does it mean for quantum mechanics?

Under the gaze of everyone, Li Qiwei took out another small device.

He opened his mouth and explained:

"This is an induction loop detector I made myself."

"Whenever electrons pass through the coil, they cause a tiny change in the magnetic field."

"Then the sensor light at the back will light up."

"I installed an induction coil like this next to each of the two slits."

"As long as an electron passes through this slit, the light will turn on."

Wow!
Everyone exclaimed!
“This experiment is so cleverly designed.”

"How on earth did Professor Bruce come up with this idea?"

Everyone suddenly felt that Professor Bruce was very strange today.

What happened to your poor hands-on experimental skills?
If this is considered bad, then those experimental physics masters are useless.

Rutherford stared at Bruce who was placing the coil on the stage.

He had been quiet before.

For an experimental master like him, he has seen too many bizarre experiments.

So no matter how mysterious quantum mechanics is, he can accept it.

Everything depends on experimental data!

Experiment is even superior to theory.

No matter how perfect the results of theoretical predictions are, they are useless if the experiments cannot be carried out.

Once the results of the experiment appear, no matter how bizarre they are, they cannot be questioned.

We can only create new theories to explain it.

What really moved Rutherford was Ridgway's experimental ability. Then, he smiled and said with emotion:
"Bruce, you've deceived me all along."

"With your ability, if you were willing to study atomic physics, I'm afraid protons and neutrons would have been discovered long ago."

Just as Rutherford was daydreaming, Li Qiwei's upgraded experiment was assembled.

"Start now!"

"In the first experiment, the detectors on both sides were turned on at the same time."

drop!
As the sound of electron emission sounded.

Everyone immediately began to pay attention to the situation of the sensor light.

A magical thing happened!

The sensor lights didn't light up at the same time!
When the left side is bright, the right side is not bright, and when the right side is bright, the left side is not bright.

Anyway, only one side is lit at a time.

"My God!"

"What's going on?"

"Doesn't this mean that the electron only passes through one slit at a time?"

"Why don't you interfere?"

It was obvious that the bigwigs present saw the problem at a glance.

The single-electron double-slit interference experiment just now is still vivid in my mind.

How about adding a detector to see the behavior of electrons, and the electrons won’t interfere.

Now the electron randomly chooses to pass through the left or right slit each time.

At this moment, someone suddenly thought of a horrible fact:

“If the detector is replaced with a human eye.”

"Suppose the human eye could see electrons directly."

"When people look at it, the electron behaves like a wave and interference occurs; when people don't look at it, the electron behaves like a particle and there is no interference."

"The action of 'looking' controlled by human's subjective consciousness actually directly affects the behavior of electrons."

"This is incredible!"

The experiment ended amidst everyone's discussion.

No interference fringes appear on the display screen, only two bright stripes, which are left by electrons passing through the double slits.

Li Qiwei did not rush to explain and continued the experiment.

"For the second experiment, turn off the left detector and turn on the right detector."

drop!
The sensor light comes on from time to time.

Ten minutes later, there were still no interference fringes on the display.

Obviously, the electrons still did not interfere.

"For the third experiment, turn off the right detector and turn on the left detector."

The result was exactly the same the second time!
No matter which detector is turned on, as long as the detector exists, the electrons will no longer interfere but will completely become particles.

Finally, Li Qiwei said with a smile:

"Now, shut down both detectors."

Soon, the results came out, the electrons interfered again!

The familiar stripes of light and dark appeared on the display.

At this point, the upgraded version of Lee’s double-slit experiment ends!
The result was quite bizarre.

As long as there is a detector, electrons behave as particles; without a detector, electrons behave as waves.

Many people simply can't understand it.

“This is too weird!”

At this time, Li Qiwei said with a smile:

"I believe that someone here can explain the results of this experiment."

"Heisenberg, explain it to me."

Heisenberg was discussing a problem with Pauli and stood up immediately after hearing it.

He didn't expect that Professor Bruce would ask him to explain.

However, he was not nervous and was very calm.

Heisenberg began:
"This upgraded version of the observer experiment is actually the best proof of the complementarity principle."

"The detector coil and the display screen actually serve the same purpose."

"They are both measurements of the particle nature of the electron."

"When the electron passes through the coil, its wave function collapses and it becomes a particle, so it can no longer interfere."

"When the induction coil is removed, the electrons return to the superposition state, which has wave properties, so interference can occur."

"Besides, this experiment has nothing to do with consciousness."

"Even if we replace the detector with a human eye, and assume that human eyes can see electrons."

“But the process of [seeing] is actually the photons in space hitting the electrons, and then the photons are received by the human eye, and the electrons are seen.”

"The process of photon-electron collision is the measurement of the electron's particle properties, which causes the electron's wave function to collapse."

Wow!
Everyone suddenly realized!

They are all top figures in the world of physics.

After several rounds of brainwashing, I have begun to abandon the thinking of classical physics.

We cannot treat electrons as real little balls.

It is a combination of waves and particles.

Just agree with this point of view and always think about the problems of quantum mechanics in this way.

Then the so-called single-electron double-slit interference experiment and the upgraded observer effect experiment are easy to understand.

Li Qiwei smiled and nodded, motioning Heisenberg to sit down. The other party's explanation was completely correct.

He suddenly felt very emotional.

“Finally the rumor has been debunked online.”

This upgraded version of the double-slit interference experiment is the experiment described by various marketing accounts in later generations.

Moreover, the marketing account will also include a particularly misleading picture in the article.

The upper half of the picture shows a little man with his eyes closed, standing in front of a single-electron double-slit interference experiment instrument, and interference fringes appear on the display screen.

Then the lower half of the picture shows the little man opening his eyes, and the interference fringes on the display disappear again.

So the conclusion is:

"Shock!"

"Physics no longer exists!"

"The double-slit interference experiment is so scary! It's creepy!"

"Human consciousness can influence reality!"

“Consciousness transcends physics?”

In short, be as shocking as possible.

It seems as if I can start cultivating immortals in the next moment.

But if you read the birth process of quantum mechanics from the beginning, you will smile.

The single-electron double-slit interference experiment is not mysterious at all and has nothing to do with consciousness.

The reason why it has caused so much misunderstanding is because of the word "observer".

Many marketing accounts have no idea what an observer means, and simply assume that "an observer must be a person."

Therefore, it is believed that human consciousness can interfere with experimental results.

But the truth is that displays and detectors are observers, they have no consciousness.

Even if you put a cat to watch how an electron passes through the double slit, the electron will still collapse into an electron without any interference.

At this point, someone might say:
"I understand. Quantum mechanics has nothing to do with consciousness."

Do not!
There is still some connection.

In real history, Schrödinger's cat questioned the significance of consciousness to quantum mechanics.

At this time, Li Qiwei glanced at Schrödinger.

Suddenly, a strange idea came into his mind:

"If I propose Schrödinger's cat, wouldn't that be questioning myself?"

(End of this chapter)