1. Cape Town
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    19 Aug '12 12:50
    Originally posted by Phil Hill
    The decision being made prior to your conscious choice is freewill? That is the most twisted and strained definition of freewill I have ever heard.
    You said nothing whatsoever about conscious choice.
  2. Cape Town
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    19 Aug '12 12:56
    Originally posted by Phil Hill
    Quantum mechanics apply to macroscopic systems? Guess you can believe anything you want.
    I guess you don't know much about quantum dynamics. Did you know that the wave nature of light (and all magnetic radiation for that matter) is a quantum effect?
  3. Joined
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    19 Aug '12 13:19
    Originally posted by Phil Hill
    Then we should throw out Newtonian mechanics and Relativity? Why is it so hard for some of you guys to accept that physics and neuroscience both show freewill to be nothing more than a myth?
    Then we should throw out Newtonian mechanics and Relativity?

    No. Where did you get that from? Newtonian mechanics has been proven to be incomplete ( “incomplete” not to be confused with “wrong” or “useless” for it is neither those things ) by both relativity and quantum mechanics. There is currently some apparent incompatibilities between relativity and quantum mechanics but that does not mean the two are mutually exclusive but rather just means we haven't yet got a complete theory of everything and you can still describe something macroscopic with quantum mechanics.
    Why is it so hard for some of you guys to accept that physics and neuroscience both show freewill to be nothing more than a myth?

    what would that got to do with describing something macroscopic with quantum mechanics?
  4. Germany
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    19 Aug '12 15:15
    Newtonian mechanics is simply a special case of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Relativistic quantum mechanics incorporates the effects of special relativity successfully, however the unification of quantum mechanics and general relativity is still an open issue because gravity is so weak and it is hard to detect it on a small scale.
  5. Joined
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    19 Aug '12 20:48
    Originally posted by Phil Hill
    As far as time travel, for elementary particles it happens all the time (into the past) and "time standing still" for photons and other particles traveling at c.
    What kind of elementary particles travel backwards in time? Do you have a source for this?

    BTW, if the state of any system is known. The past as well as the future can be predicted with 100& accuracy.


    After measurement, the wavefunction evolves according to the Schroedinger equation with the measurement serving as an initial condition. Wouldn't this make any future measurements on the system probabilistic?
  6. Germany
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    20 Aug '12 16:491 edit
    Originally posted by amolv06
    What kind of elementary particles travel backwards in time? Do you have a source for this?
    In Feynman diagrams, antiparticles are often denoted as particles traveling backwards in time. But this is merely a notational/mathematical convenience, and you should not think of it as causal influences going backwards in time.

    When relativistic quantum mechanics was first developed, the Dirac equation appeared to predict particles going both forwards and backwards in time. The latter was first thought to be an anomaly of the theory, but it was later realized this solution represents antiparticles.
  7. Joined
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    20 Aug '12 17:15
    I see. Thanks for that. I guess I will be learning this some time within the next few years. I had no idea.
  8. Germany
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    20 Aug '12 17:27
    Originally posted by amolv06
    I see. Thanks for that. I guess I will be learning this some time within the next few years. I had no idea.
    What's the topic of your PhD project?
  9. Joined
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    20 Aug '12 18:071 edit
    None yet. I am about to start my first year. Perhaps my profile is misleading.

    Edit: Fixed the profile.
  10. Subscribersonhouse
    Fast and Curious
    slatington, pa, usa
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    20 Aug '12 20:15
    Originally posted by amolv06
    None yet. I am about to start my first year. Perhaps my profile is misleading.

    Edit: Fixed the profile.
    I assume then you already finished your MS in physics?
  11. Joined
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    20 Aug '12 20:37
    Originally posted by sonhouse
    I assume then you already finished your MS in physics?
    I have recently finished my BS. I have been accepted directly into a PhD program, where I will earn a masters en route.
  12. Germany
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    21 Aug '12 05:271 edit
    Originally posted by sonhouse
    I assume then you already finished your MS in physics?
    In the US and UK it is common to earn a masters and PhD in one go (often in 3 years). For me it takes a bit longer, 2 year master + 4 year PhD (although in Finland a PhD position is basically a research position after a year or so).
  13. Account suspended
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    09 Oct '12 19:51
    Originally posted by Metal Brain
    Is time travel possible? Many physicists say maybe in the past but not in the future. Is this true?

    In the spirituality forum there is a thread called free will. I often used the free will question to provoke thought from the Jehovah's Witnesses that would knock on my door. "If god knows knows what will happen in the future how can that be compatible ...[text shortened]... way of looking at it anyway.

    Is time travel into the future possible? I tend to think no.
    Time travel into the future is simple. Find yourself a chair, sit down in it, wait ten minutes, now you have traveled ten minutes into the future. Sometimes I time travel eight hours into the future in a single night.
  14. Subscribersonhouse
    Fast and Curious
    slatington, pa, usa
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    09 Oct '12 21:14
    Originally posted by CLL53
    Time travel into the future is simple. Find yourself a chair, sit down in it, wait ten minutes, now you have traveled ten minutes into the future. Sometimes I time travel eight hours into the future in a single night.
    And sometimes when you get stoned, it takes 16 hours to do 8.
  15. Joined
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    12 Oct '12 22:55
    Originally posted by CLL53
    Time travel into the future is simple. Find yourself a chair, sit down in it, wait ten minutes, now you have traveled ten minutes into the future. Sometimes I time travel eight hours into the future in a single night.
    Sleep is a very good time machine. I often go back in time with memory freely.
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