We're aware of how flawed our worldview is. Our senses, our social networks, and our knowledge all have an impact on how we view the world.
And you may want to change your mind if you think that science will always tell you the truth.
Physicists are now delving into a theory put forward by Nobel
Prize winner Eugen Wigner in 1961.
The "Wigner's Friend" experiment is straightforward
to set up. You begin with a quantum system that is in superposition, which
means that up to the time of measurement, it is concurrently in both states. In
this case, the polarisation, or axis around which a photon spins, is horizontal
and vertical.
When they try to measure it, the apparatus will break down,
trapping the photon in one of these two states. In the lab, Wigner's friend is
doing the experiment. The quantum system, which is important since it also
includes the lab, is in superposition for Wigner, who is not in the lab and is
oblivious of the experiment's findings.
Although the solutions are different, they are both correct.
Therefore, it would seem that Wigner's reality and his friend's reality are
both true. (This is comparable to the thought experiment known as Schrodinger's
cat, which involves a cat in a box.) That's also a bad thing.
It has been difficult to validate this idea for a very long
time. The quantum mechanics equation is difficult for Wigner to comprehend
after seeing his friend do an experiment. Scientists were able to get the same
outcome using a quantum mechanics experiment thanks to recent advancements.
The four entangled observers of the system and a
state-of-the-art six-photon experiment showed that while one part of the system
completed a measurement, the other part showed that the measurement had not
been done.
At the same time, two facts were measured. This, according to
the study, validates the claim made by quantum theories, which already
conceptualise observer reliance.
The facts established by the two observers' objectivity are
called into doubt by this, the researchers write in their report, which can be
viewed on ArXiv.
Can their different records be integrated, or are they too
different to be regarded as unflinchingly objective "facts of the
world" no matter who sees them?
Science is the best tool we have for comprehending reality,
yet we are aware of how observers affect things and their limits. According to
relativity, two observers could not see the same thing at the same time.
Quantum physics teaches us that the observer has an impact on
the experiment. At the quantum level, it seems possible that two worlds may
coexist concurrently.
MIT Technology Review is cited.
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