3i4
NOTES
Page 235: Enrico Fermi, horrified at the proliferation of subatomic particles ... Kaku, Hyperspace, p. 118.
Page 239: Max Tegmark of MIT believes that in fifty years... Max
Tegmark, New Scientist Magazine, November 18, 2006, p. 37.
Page 242: Schrôdinger railed against this interpretation of his theory...
Cole, p. 222.
Page 242: "So I hope you can accept nature as She is-absurd." Greene,
p. 111.
Page 244: Another viewpoint on the paradox is the "many worlds"
idea... Yet another attractive feature of the "many worlds" interpretation is
that no further assumptions other than the original wave equation are required. In this picture we never have to collapse wave functions or make observations. The wave function simply divides all by itself, automatically,
without any intervention or assumptions from the outside. In this sense, the
"many worlds" theory is simpler conceptually than all the other theories,
which require outside observers, measurements, collapses of waves, and so
forth. It is true that we are burdened with infinite numbers of universes, but
the wave function keeps track of them, without any further assumptions
from the outside.
One way to understand why our physical universe seems so stable and
secure is to invoke decoherence, that is, that we have decohered from all
these other parallel universes. But decoherence does not eliminate these
other parallel universes. Decoherence only explains why our universe,
among an infinite set of universes, seems so stable. Decoherence is based on
the idea that universes can split into many universes, but that our universe,
via interactions from the environment, becomes quite separated from these
other universes.
Page 244: Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek says, "We are haunted..." Raku,
Parallel Worlds, p. 169.
14: PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINES
Page 257: "It was Santa Claus and Aladdin's lamp of the whole world,"
Asimov, p. 12.
Page 265: In theory, a perpetual motion machine of the second type...
Some people have objected, declaring that the human brain, representing
perhaps the most complex object ever created by mother nature in the solar
system, violates the Second Law. The human brain, consisting of over 100
billion neurons, is unrivaled in complexity by anything out to 24 trillion
miles of the Earth, to the nearest star. But how can this vast reduction in entropy be compatible with the Second Law, they ask? Evolution itself seems to
violate the Second Law. The answer to this is that the decrease in entropy
created by the rise of higher organisms, including humans, came at the expense of raising the total entropy elsewhere. The decrease in entropy created
by evolution is more than balanced out by the increase in entropy in the surrounding environment, that is, the entropy of sunlight hitting the Earth. The
NOTES
Page 235: Enrico Fermi, horrified at the proliferation of subatomic particles ... Kaku, Hyperspace, p. 118.
Page 239: Max Tegmark of MIT believes that in fifty years... Max
Tegmark, New Scientist Magazine, November 18, 2006, p. 37.
Page 242: Schrôdinger railed against this interpretation of his theory...
Cole, p. 222.
Page 242: "So I hope you can accept nature as She is-absurd." Greene,
p. 111.
Page 244: Another viewpoint on the paradox is the "many worlds"
idea... Yet another attractive feature of the "many worlds" interpretation is
that no further assumptions other than the original wave equation are required. In this picture we never have to collapse wave functions or make observations. The wave function simply divides all by itself, automatically,
without any intervention or assumptions from the outside. In this sense, the
"many worlds" theory is simpler conceptually than all the other theories,
which require outside observers, measurements, collapses of waves, and so
forth. It is true that we are burdened with infinite numbers of universes, but
the wave function keeps track of them, without any further assumptions
from the outside.
One way to understand why our physical universe seems so stable and
secure is to invoke decoherence, that is, that we have decohered from all
these other parallel universes. But decoherence does not eliminate these
other parallel universes. Decoherence only explains why our universe,
among an infinite set of universes, seems so stable. Decoherence is based on
the idea that universes can split into many universes, but that our universe,
via interactions from the environment, becomes quite separated from these
other universes.
Page 244: Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek says, "We are haunted..." Raku,
Parallel Worlds, p. 169.
14: PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINES
Page 257: "It was Santa Claus and Aladdin's lamp of the whole world,"
Asimov, p. 12.
Page 265: In theory, a perpetual motion machine of the second type...
Some people have objected, declaring that the human brain, representing
perhaps the most complex object ever created by mother nature in the solar
system, violates the Second Law. The human brain, consisting of over 100
billion neurons, is unrivaled in complexity by anything out to 24 trillion
miles of the Earth, to the nearest star. But how can this vast reduction in entropy be compatible with the Second Law, they ask? Evolution itself seems to
violate the Second Law. The answer to this is that the decrease in entropy
created by the rise of higher organisms, including humans, came at the expense of raising the total entropy elsewhere. The decrease in entropy created
by evolution is more than balanced out by the increase in entropy in the surrounding environment, that is, the entropy of sunlight hitting the Earth. The