Mankind 'shortening the universe's life'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk ^ | 11/21/07 | Roger Highfield, Science Editor

[Caramelgal]

In a nutshell, the theory suggests that we change things simply by looking at them and theorists have puzzled over the implications for years.

This sounds a bit like the old question; if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?

the “quantum Zeno effect,” which suggests that if an “observer” makes repeated, quick observations of a microscopic object undergoing change, the object can stop changing - just as a watched kettle never boils.

A tree falling in the forest certainly makes a sound, whether any of “us” are around to hear the noise or not. And a watched kettle comes to a boil at the same rate as an unwatched one – the only difference being our perception of time and how anxious we are for something to happen. Just because one makes observation of a microscopic object undergoing change and the object stops changing, it would have done so whether the observer was watching or not.

It reminds me of the phenomenon of light poles along the highway. How often have you driven past a light pole just as it burns out and goes dark? Some people think that they somehow caused it to go out because every time they “observe” a light going out, they happened to be looking at it. Of course they only notice the few lights that happen to burn out while they are driving by because it is a noticeable event and disregard the thousands of lights that remain lit.

…Schrodinger’s cat in which, thanks to a fancy experimental set up, the moggy is both alive and dead until someone decides to look, when it either carries on living, or dies. That is, by one interpetation (by another, the universe splits into two, one with a live cat and one with a dead one.)

If by looking at someone, I could effect whether that person was alive or dead, there would a few more dead people…I’ve given the “evil eye” to my ex husband and just yesterday to a sleazy ex-boyfriend and his latest girl friend when I saw them together at the grocery store and as far as I know, they are all alive and doing well.

Of course perhaps the Universe split and in an alternate one, I had laser beam eyes and they were burned to a crisp. But I doubt that and it wouldn’t matter any way because I only live in this Universe and have no such powers.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

I suspect there’d be a universal irregularity if uranus was impacted by dark matter.

[mikrofon]

Prof[s] Lawrence Krauss of NutCase Western Reserve University

There, fixed it...

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Scientist #1;” Did you pick a dozen apples?”
Scientist #2;”Well, I thought so. But there are only 11 apples in my basket. So I miscounted them.”
Scientist #3;” OMG! We’re losing apples!”

[pigsmith]

[Bubba_Leroy]

by making this observation in 1998 we may have caused the cosmos to revert to an earlier state when it was more likely to end.

In 1998 Clinton was President.

So it's Clinton's fault.

[weegee]

Did they submit their findings to this magazine?

[weegee]

“In a nutshell, the theory suggests that we change things simply by looking at them and theorists have puzzled over the implications for years.”

QUIT STARING AT THE POT OF WATER! IT WON’T COME TO A BOIL IF YOU DO!!!

[weegee]

And some say that these scientific theories aren’t a religious belief, a faith in something that they cannot prove (e.g. the cat is alive until you try to prove that it isn’t dead).

[weegee]

No, we must take greater measures. All tv-channels will become competing networks of Britney/Paris/Nicole/Anna-Nicole/and Tom Cruise “news updates”.

That ought to kill enough of mankind’s brain cells to undo the damage we have already done to the universe.

[Psycho_Bunny]

The team came to this depressing conclusion by calculating how the energy state of our universe - a kind of summation of all its particles and all their energies

I'm curious how they did this, considering that we can't see beyond the cosmological horizon i.e., it's physically impossible to calculate any summation of the physical universe because no one has even the slightest idea how big it might be.

[syriacus]

I’m starting a new venture enterprise selling ‘observation off-sets’

LOL! Great solution to a cosmic problem, perchprism!
:-)

[quadrant]

An alternate universe already exists: inside the heads and in the imaginations of people on the political Left.

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

These people should have to turn in their “doctorates” for scientific malpractice. The term “observation” in physics is most often interpreted to mean “macroscopic change.” All of the so-called paradoxes occur when a quantum-level event influences a non-quantum (i.e. much larger) scale event. We don’t actually “see” wave-particle duality in experiments... a machine records the results of particle collisions... and that macroscopic change in the state of the machine is enough to count as “observation.” It’s not like the event doesn’t happen until a person watches it... it is indeterminate until it makes a macroscopic difference. If the dark matter was heating surrounding interstellar gas, then its effects are “observable” and would effect the universe, even if man had never existed...

What a load of crap!

[steve8714]

I don’t get it...therefore thi sthread will go on forever. At the same time it will cease to exist.
This takes quantum science to the level of “monsters can’t get me if I’m under the blanket”.

[Bogtrotter52]

I firmly believe that all knowledge is good and answers should be sought for the “BIG” questions. That being said, these guys have made their contribution. They should really move onto something that may actually be of benefit.

[Bogtrotter52]

“Stephen King’s “The Langoliers” are coming!”

And remember, they don’t run, they SCAMPER!

[Napoleon Solo]

Thank goodness the report way by a few hair dressers. I would have been askeered if they had been real scientists. Do you think that Krypton can be glued back together?

[bill1952]

oh no! - universe to end! - mankind looking at things! - sight pollution - oh no!

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

People who think all day about deep subjects have lost their connection to normal life.
These brain-deficient people live and breathe quantum mechanics, which contains the idea that some things are changed when someone observes them. Observing them requires light. Light “rays” or photons affect those tiny particles so loved by these scientists.
So observing things on that level affects them. True. But they have gone mad or else they wouldn’t say that our observations of the universe are affecting it.
One more reason why my trust in scientists has faded.