• Re: When was the observer effect (physics) first observed?

    From *Hemidactylus*@21:1/5 to Martin Harran on Thu Aug 15 23:44:09 2024
    Martin Harran <martinharran@gmail.com> wrote:
    It seems to have been first formally stated by Heisenberg in 1958 his
    book "The Physicist's Conception of Nature" but I would have thought
    that it would have been noted earlier than that.

    The reason I'm asking is that Teilhard de Chardin effectively
    describes it in his foreword to 'The Phenomenon of Man' - "Object and
    subject marry and mutually transform each other in the act of
    knowledge; and from now on man willy-nilly finds his own image stamped
    on all he looks at."

    Teilhard wrote that somewhere in the last 1920s/early 30s which more
    or less coincides with the early days of QM. I'm wondering if Teilhard
    was reflecting what those involved in QM were already talking about or whether he arrived at this under his own steam.

    I know we had a bit of conflict over Teilhard not long ago. I recently saw
    this antiwoke douchebro James Lindsay try to take a stab at Teilhard. I
    tried watching it but gave up because Lindsay is trying to forcefit
    Teilhard into a weird convoluted agenda. He did a similar thing with a
    video about bogeyman George Soros not long ago. Before that was Herbert Marcuse. Before that was Foucault and postmodernism. Don’t know if you have more stamina than I do, but here it is:

    https://youtu.be/6YXtQhEGEXk?si=XwMw7Z3Hn-OJFopx

    Again, I despise Lindsay but would be interested in your take on his cray
    cray approach to Teilhard.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ernest Major@21:1/5 to Martin Harran on Fri Aug 16 09:11:14 2024
    On 15/08/2024 18:42, Martin Harran wrote:
    It seems to have been first formally stated by Heisenberg in 1958 his
    book "The Physicist's Conception of Nature" but I would have thought
    that it would have been noted earlier than that.

    The reason I'm asking is that Teilhard de Chardin effectively
    describes it in his foreword to 'The Phenomenon of Man' - "Object and
    subject marry and mutually transform each other in the act of
    knowledge; and from now on man willy-nilly finds his own image stamped
    on all he looks at."

    Teilhard wrote that somewhere in the last 1920s/early 30s which more
    or less coincides with the early days of QM. I'm wondering if Teilhard
    was reflecting what those involved in QM were already talking about or whether he arrived at this under his own steam.


    One example of the observer effect occurs with the use of mercury
    thermometers. If you use a mercury thermometer to measure the
    temperature of a flask of water, what you measure is the weighted mean temperature of the water and the mercury (and other bits of the system),
    as heat flows from one to the other to equilibriate the temperature.

    The observer effect, in one form or another, may well have been one of
    those things that "everyone knew". One specific example, the Hawthorne
    Effect, was named in 1953. In electronics it's called the probe effect.

    --
    alias Ernest Major

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From J. J. Lodder@21:1/5 to erik simpson on Fri Aug 16 14:14:18 2024
    erik simpson <eastside.erik@gmail.com> wrote:

    On 8/15/24 10:42 AM, Martin Harran wrote:
    It seems to have been first formally stated by Heisenberg in 1958 his
    book "The Physicist's Conception of Nature" but I would have thought
    that it would have been noted earlier than that.

    The reason I'm asking is that Teilhard de Chardin effectively
    describes it in his foreword to 'The Phenomenon of Man' - "Object and subject marry and mutually transform each other in the act of
    knowledge; and from now on man willy-nilly finds his own image stamped
    on all he looks at."

    Teilhard wrote that somewhere in the last 1920s/early 30s which more
    or less coincides with the early days of QM. I'm wondering if Teilhard
    was reflecting what those involved in QM were already talking about or whether he arrived at this under his own steam.

    I've heard it said that nearly every quantum mechanician has his own "interpretation" of what it means. De Chardin was a bit early to have
    had that much influence. Feynman suggested that nobody understands
    quantum mechanics but that Einstein may have been close with his "spooky action at a distance.

    Perhaps, but they all agree about what QM predicts.
    (and does not predict)

    Newton, of course, had no precognition of quantum
    mechanics, but he too was bothered by the action at a distance idea.

    Right, it was philosophically absurd,
    in an age where they had just agreed that all explanations
    of phenomena should be mechanistic, so mechanical,

    Jan

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From IDentity@21:1/5 to martinharran@gmail.com on Sat Sep 21 17:19:14 2024
    On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 18:42:53 +0100, Martin Harran
    <martinharran@gmail.com> wrote:

    It seems to have been first formally stated by Heisenberg in 1958 his
    book "The Physicist's Conception of Nature" but I would have thought
    that it would have been noted earlier than that.

    The reason I'm asking is that Teilhard de Chardin effectively
    describes it in his foreword to 'The Phenomenon of Man' - "Object and
    subject marry and mutually transform each other in the act of
    knowledge; and from now on man willy-nilly finds his own image stamped
    on all he looks at."

    Teilhard wrote that somewhere in the last 1920s/early 30s which more
    or less coincides with the early days of QM. I'm wondering if Teilhard
    was reflecting what those involved in QM were already talking about or >whether he arrived at this under his own steam.

    The old Chinese sages knew all this stuff thousands of years ago. They understood that to understand the world, you must first understand
    yourself - your mind.

    Like Jung said: "Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside
    awakens."

    External reality is a dream dreamed by the mind, and to wake up you
    must realize that you are the dreamer.

    Niels Bohr was a deep admirer of TAOism and probaby got many of
    scientific his ideas from here. He didn't get far enough in his
    understanding though to realize that TAO represents the fundamental
    principle of the GUT science is still looking for.

    "There is nothing that isn't objective; there is nothing that isn't
    subjective. But it is impossible to start from the objective. Only
    through subjective knowledge is it possible to reach objective
    knowledge. This is the axis of TAO: when the subjective and the
    objective are no longer opposed." - Chuang Tzu

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From J. J. Lodder@21:1/5 to IDentity on Sun Sep 22 09:36:55 2024
    IDentity <identity@invalid.org> wrote:

    On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 18:42:53 +0100, Martin Harran
    <martinharran@gmail.com> wrote:

    It seems to have been first formally stated by Heisenberg in 1958 his
    book "The Physicist's Conception of Nature" but I would have thought
    that it would have been noted earlier than that.

    The reason I'm asking is that Teilhard de Chardin effectively
    describes it in his foreword to 'The Phenomenon of Man' - "Object and >subject marry and mutually transform each other in the act of
    knowledge; and from now on man willy-nilly finds his own image stamped
    on all he looks at."

    Teilhard wrote that somewhere in the last 1920s/early 30s which more
    or less coincides with the early days of QM. I'm wondering if Teilhard
    was reflecting what those involved in QM were already talking about or >whether he arrived at this under his own steam.

    The old Chinese sages knew all this stuff thousands of years ago. They understood that to understand the world, you must first understand
    yourself - your mind.

    Like Jung said: "Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside
    awakens."

    External reality is a dream dreamed by the mind, and to wake up you
    must realize that you are the dreamer.

    Niels Bohr was a deep admirer of TAOism and probaby got many of
    scientific his ideas from here. He didn't get far enough in his understanding though to realize that TAO represents the fundamental
    principle of the GUT science is still looking for.

    Sure. Please introspect the value of \alpha for us,

    Jan

    --
    "Aber warum 137?" (Wolfgang Pauli)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From *Hemidactylus*@21:1/5 to J. J. Lodder on Sun Sep 22 11:40:01 2024
    J. J. Lodder <nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> wrote:
    IDentity <identity@invalid.org> wrote:

    On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 18:42:53 +0100, Martin Harran
    <martinharran@gmail.com> wrote:

    It seems to have been first formally stated by Heisenberg in 1958 his
    book "The Physicist's Conception of Nature" but I would have thought
    that it would have been noted earlier than that.

    The reason I'm asking is that Teilhard de Chardin effectively
    describes it in his foreword to 'The Phenomenon of Man' - "Object and
    subject marry and mutually transform each other in the act of
    knowledge; and from now on man willy-nilly finds his own image stamped
    on all he looks at."

    Teilhard wrote that somewhere in the last 1920s/early 30s which more
    or less coincides with the early days of QM. I'm wondering if Teilhard
    was reflecting what those involved in QM were already talking about or
    whether he arrived at this under his own steam.

    The old Chinese sages knew all this stuff thousands of years ago. They
    understood that to understand the world, you must first understand
    yourself - your mind.

    Like Jung said: "Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside
    awakens."

    External reality is a dream dreamed by the mind, and to wake up you
    must realize that you are the dreamer.

    Niels Bohr was a deep admirer of TAOism and probaby got many of
    scientific his ideas from here. He didn't get far enough in his
    understanding though to realize that TAO represents the fundamental
    principle of the GUT science is still looking for.

    Sure. Please introspect the value of \alpha for us,


    137?

    “But where did 137 come in? Pauli became convinced that the number was so fundamental that it ought to be deducible from a theory of elementary particles. This quest took over his waking and sleeping life. Driven beyond endurance, he sought the help of Jung…”

    https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/looking-back-odd-couple

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From J. J. Lodder@21:1/5 to ecphoric@allspamis.invalid on Sun Sep 22 16:14:06 2024
    *Hemidactylus* <ecphoric@allspamis.invalid> wrote:

    J. J. Lodder <nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> wrote:
    IDentity <identity@invalid.org> wrote:

    On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 18:42:53 +0100, Martin Harran
    <martinharran@gmail.com> wrote:

    It seems to have been first formally stated by Heisenberg in 1958 his
    book "The Physicist's Conception of Nature" but I would have thought
    that it would have been noted earlier than that.

    The reason I'm asking is that Teilhard de Chardin effectively
    describes it in his foreword to 'The Phenomenon of Man' - "Object and
    subject marry and mutually transform each other in the act of
    knowledge; and from now on man willy-nilly finds his own image stamped >>> on all he looks at."

    Teilhard wrote that somewhere in the last 1920s/early 30s which more
    or less coincides with the early days of QM. I'm wondering if Teilhard >>> was reflecting what those involved in QM were already talking about or >>> whether he arrived at this under his own steam.

    The old Chinese sages knew all this stuff thousands of years ago. They
    understood that to understand the world, you must first understand
    yourself - your mind.

    Like Jung said: "Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside
    awakens."

    External reality is a dream dreamed by the mind, and to wake up you
    must realize that you are the dreamer.

    Niels Bohr was a deep admirer of TAOism and probaby got many of
    scientific his ideas from here. He didn't get far enough in his
    understanding though to realize that TAO represents the fundamental
    principle of the GUT science is still looking for.

    Sure. Please introspect the value of \alpha for us,


    137?

    "But where did 137 come in?

    From experiment of course, to 12 significant digits.

    Pauli became convinced that the number was so
    fundamental that it ought to be deducible from a theory of elementary particles.

    Yes, but that is obsolete by now.
    Thanks to string theory we know nowadays
    that this is just another random number,
    selected anthropically at the big Bang.
    'Uggly theories are good!'

    This quest took over his waking and sleeping life. Driven beyond
    endurance, he sought the help of Jung…"

    https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/looking-back-odd-couple

    Who couldn't help either.
    And now, almost a 100 years on,
    we are still as clueless as Pauli was a century ago.
    Asking some Buddhist idiot, or a Taoist idem,
    or any other Eastern 'sage' like this IDentity <identity@invalid.org>
    will get us lots of fuzzy language, but not 137

    Jan

    --
    More 137 fun, the element 137 has been pre-named Feynmanium, 137^Fy,
    because Feynman predicted that it would be fundamentally different
    in electronic structure, hence chemistry. Unfortunately....

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bob Casanova@21:1/5 to All on Sun Sep 22 15:25:44 2024
    On Sun, 22 Sep 2024 16:14:06 +0200, the following appeared
    in talk.origins, posted by nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J.
    Lodder):

    *Hemidactylus* <ecphoric@allspamis.invalid> wrote:

    J. J. Lodder <nospam@de-ster.demon.nl> wrote:
    IDentity <identity@invalid.org> wrote:

    On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 18:42:53 +0100, Martin Harran
    <martinharran@gmail.com> wrote:

    It seems to have been first formally stated by Heisenberg in 1958 his
    book "The Physicist's Conception of Nature" but I would have thought
    that it would have been noted earlier than that.

    The reason I'm asking is that Teilhard de Chardin effectively
    describes it in his foreword to 'The Phenomenon of Man' - "Object and
    subject marry and mutually transform each other in the act of
    knowledge; and from now on man willy-nilly finds his own image stamped >> >>> on all he looks at."

    Teilhard wrote that somewhere in the last 1920s/early 30s which more
    or less coincides with the early days of QM. I'm wondering if Teilhard >> >>> was reflecting what those involved in QM were already talking about or >> >>> whether he arrived at this under his own steam.

    The old Chinese sages knew all this stuff thousands of years ago. They
    understood that to understand the world, you must first understand
    yourself - your mind.

    Like Jung said: "Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside
    awakens."

    External reality is a dream dreamed by the mind, and to wake up you
    must realize that you are the dreamer.

    Niels Bohr was a deep admirer of TAOism and probaby got many of
    scientific his ideas from here. He didn't get far enough in his
    understanding though to realize that TAO represents the fundamental
    principle of the GUT science is still looking for.

    Sure. Please introspect the value of \alpha for us,


    137?

    "But where did 137 come in?

    From experiment of course, to 12 significant digits.

    Pauli became convinced that the number was so
    fundamental that it ought to be deducible from a theory of elementary
    particles.

    Yes, but that is obsolete by now.
    Thanks to string theory we know nowadays
    that this is just another random number,
    selected anthropically at the big Bang.
    'Uggly theories are good!'

    This quest took over his waking and sleeping life. Driven beyond
    endurance, he sought the help of Jung"

    https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/looking-back-odd-couple

    Who couldn't help either.
    And now, almost a 100 years on,
    we are still as clueless as Pauli was a century ago.
    Asking some Buddhist idiot, or a Taoist idem,
    or any other Eastern 'sage' like this IDentity <identity@invalid.org>
    will get us lots of fuzzy language, but not 137

    It certainly yields a fine structure, but it will never
    allow us to reach the One True Answer (42, of course), or
    receive a thank-you note for all the fish.

    --

    Bob C.

    "The most exciting phrase to hear in science,
    the one that heralds new discoveries, is not
    'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"

    - Isaac Asimov

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bob Casanova@21:1/5 to All on Sun Sep 22 17:54:30 2024
    On Sun, 22 Sep 2024 16:04:48 -0700, the following appeared
    in talk.origins, posted by erik simpson
    <eastside.erik@gmail.com>:

    On 9/21/24 8:19 AM, IDentity wrote:
    On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 18:42:53 +0100, Martin Harran
    <martinharran@gmail.com> wrote:

    It seems to have been first formally stated by Heisenberg in 1958 his
    book "The Physicist's Conception of Nature" but I would have thought
    that it would have been noted earlier than that.

    The reason I'm asking is that Teilhard de Chardin effectively
    describes it in his foreword to 'The Phenomenon of Man' - "Object and
    subject marry and mutually transform each other in the act of
    knowledge; and from now on man willy-nilly finds his own image stamped
    on all he looks at."

    Teilhard wrote that somewhere in the last 1920s/early 30s which more
    or less coincides with the early days of QM. I'm wondering if Teilhard
    was reflecting what those involved in QM were already talking about or
    whether he arrived at this under his own steam.

    The old Chinese sages knew all this stuff thousands of years ago. They
    understood that to understand the world, you must first understand
    yourself - your mind.

    Like Jung said: "Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside
    awakens."

    External reality is a dream dreamed by the mind, and to wake up you
    must realize that you are the dreamer.

    Niels Bohr was a deep admirer of TAOism and probaby got many of
    scientific his ideas from here. He didn't get far enough in his
    understanding though to realize that TAO represents the fundamental
    principle of the GUT science is still looking for.

    "There is nothing that isn't objective; there is nothing that isn't
    subjective. But it is impossible to start from the objective. Only
    through subjective knowledge is it possible to reach objective
    knowledge. This is the axis of TAO: when the subjective and the
    objective are no longer opposed." - Chuang Tzu

    Ommm..

    I especially like "External reality is a dream dreamed by
    the mind". Apparently the universe didn't exist prior to the
    first mind. Whatever that might have been.

    "Reality is whatever we believe it to be."
    Sure, Sparky.

    --

    Bob C.

    "The most exciting phrase to hear in science,
    the one that heralds new discoveries, is not
    'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"

    - Isaac Asimov

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From J. J. Lodder@21:1/5 to Bob Casanova on Mon Sep 23 09:58:06 2024
    Bob Casanova <nospam@buzz.off> wrote:

    On Sun, 22 Sep 2024 16:04:48 -0700, the following appeared
    in talk.origins, posted by erik simpson
    <eastside.erik@gmail.com>:

    On 9/21/24 8:19 AM, IDentity wrote:
    On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 18:42:53 +0100, Martin Harran
    <martinharran@gmail.com> wrote:

    It seems to have been first formally stated by Heisenberg in 1958 his
    book "The Physicist's Conception of Nature" but I would have thought
    that it would have been noted earlier than that.

    The reason I'm asking is that Teilhard de Chardin effectively
    describes it in his foreword to 'The Phenomenon of Man' - "Object and
    subject marry and mutually transform each other in the act of
    knowledge; and from now on man willy-nilly finds his own image stamped >>> on all he looks at."

    Teilhard wrote that somewhere in the last 1920s/early 30s which more
    or less coincides with the early days of QM. I'm wondering if Teilhard >>> was reflecting what those involved in QM were already talking about or >>> whether he arrived at this under his own steam.

    The old Chinese sages knew all this stuff thousands of years ago. They
    understood that to understand the world, you must first understand
    yourself - your mind.

    Like Jung said: "Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside
    awakens."

    External reality is a dream dreamed by the mind, and to wake up you
    must realize that you are the dreamer.

    Niels Bohr was a deep admirer of TAOism and probaby got many of
    scientific his ideas from here. He didn't get far enough in his
    understanding though to realize that TAO represents the fundamental
    principle of the GUT science is still looking for.

    "There is nothing that isn't objective; there is nothing that isn't
    subjective. But it is impossible to start from the objective. Only
    through subjective knowledge is it possible to reach objective
    knowledge. This is the axis of TAO: when the subjective and the
    objective are no longer opposed." - Chuang Tzu

    Ommm..

    I especially like "External reality is a dream dreamed by
    the mind". Apparently the universe didn't exist prior to the
    first mind. Whatever that might have been.

    You might like the 'Austin interpretation' of quantum mechanics,
    by John Wheeler.
    It takes all that 'conciousness of the observer'
    nonsense to its logical conclusion.
    It posits that the whole past doesn't exist,
    except as potential possibilities.
    Those T. rexes for example existed only as quantum superpositions,
    together with infinitely many other logicaly possible creatures.
    Then the first mind came along, observed something, a dead cat perhaps,
    and all those billion years of quantum superposition
    crashed down into the one world we happen to know.

    Jan


    "Reality is whatever we believe it to be."
    Sure, Sparky.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bob Casanova@21:1/5 to All on Mon Sep 23 09:39:33 2024
    On Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:58:06 +0200, the following appeared
    in talk.origins, posted by nospam@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J.
    Lodder):

    Bob Casanova <nospam@buzz.off> wrote:

    On Sun, 22 Sep 2024 16:04:48 -0700, the following appeared
    in talk.origins, posted by erik simpson
    <eastside.erik@gmail.com>:

    On 9/21/24 8:19 AM, IDentity wrote:
    On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 18:42:53 +0100, Martin Harran
    <martinharran@gmail.com> wrote:

    It seems to have been first formally stated by Heisenberg in 1958 his
    book "The Physicist's Conception of Nature" but I would have thought
    that it would have been noted earlier than that.

    The reason I'm asking is that Teilhard de Chardin effectively
    describes it in his foreword to 'The Phenomenon of Man' - "Object and
    subject marry and mutually transform each other in the act of
    knowledge; and from now on man willy-nilly finds his own image stamped >> >>> on all he looks at."

    Teilhard wrote that somewhere in the last 1920s/early 30s which more
    or less coincides with the early days of QM. I'm wondering if Teilhard >> >>> was reflecting what those involved in QM were already talking about or >> >>> whether he arrived at this under his own steam.

    The old Chinese sages knew all this stuff thousands of years ago. They
    understood that to understand the world, you must first understand
    yourself - your mind.

    Like Jung said: "Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside
    awakens."

    External reality is a dream dreamed by the mind, and to wake up you
    must realize that you are the dreamer.

    Niels Bohr was a deep admirer of TAOism and probaby got many of
    scientific his ideas from here. He didn't get far enough in his
    understanding though to realize that TAO represents the fundamental
    principle of the GUT science is still looking for.

    "There is nothing that isn't objective; there is nothing that isn't
    subjective. But it is impossible to start from the objective. Only
    through subjective knowledge is it possible to reach objective
    knowledge. This is the axis of TAO: when the subjective and the
    objective are no longer opposed." - Chuang Tzu

    Ommm..

    I especially like "External reality is a dream dreamed by
    the mind". Apparently the universe didn't exist prior to the
    first mind. Whatever that might have been.

    You might like the 'Austin interpretation' of quantum mechanics,
    by John Wheeler.
    It takes all that 'conciousness of the observer'
    nonsense to its logical conclusion.

    I'd say "illogical", maybe even "insane", but never mind.
    ;-)

    It posits that the whole past doesn't exist,
    except as potential possibilities.
    Those T. rexes for example existed only as quantum superpositions,
    together with infinitely many other logicaly possible creatures.
    Then the first mind came along, observed something, a dead cat perhaps,
    and all those billion years of quantum superposition
    crashed down into the one world we happen to know.

    Sounds like he may have been an early (and still continuing)
    proponent of a certain class of psychedelic substances.

    Good poster child for "Don't leave your mind so open that
    your brain falls out", though...

    "Reality is whatever we believe it to be."
    Sure, Sparky.
    --

    Bob C.

    "The most exciting phrase to hear in science,
    the one that heralds new discoveries, is not
    'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"

    - Isaac Asimov

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)