Posted on 06/14/2022 7:08:58 AM PDT by FarCenter
The Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics says that you can have a particle spinning clockwise and counterclockwise at the same time – until you look at it, at which point it definitely becomes one or the other. The theory claims that observing reality fundamentally changes it.
The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics says that when you observe or interact with a problem in any way, you can be blamed for it. At the very least, you are to blame for not doing more. Even if you don’t make the problem worse, even if you make it slightly better, the ethical burden of the problem falls on you as soon as you observe it. In particular, if you interact with a problem and benefit from it, you are a complete monster. I don’t subscribe to this school of thought, but it seems pretty popular.
In 2010, New York randomly chose homeless applicants to participate in its Homebase program, and tracked those who were not allowed into the program as a control group. The program was helping as many people as it could, the only change was explicitly labeling a number of people it wasn’t helping as a “control group”. The response?
“They should immediately stop this experiment,” said the Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer. “The city shouldn’t be making guinea pigs out of its most vulnerable.”
On March 11th, 2012, the vast majority of people did nothing to help homeless people. They were busy doing other things, many of them good and important things, but by and large not improving the well-being of homeless humans in any way. In particular, almost no one was doing anything for the homeless of Austin, Texas. BBH Labs was an exception – they outfitted 13 homeless volunteers with WiFi hotspots and asked them to offer WiFi to SXSW attendees in exchange for donations. In return, they would be paid $20 a day plus whatever attendees gave in donations. Each of these 13 volunteers chose this over all the other things they could have done that day, and benefited from it – not a vast improvement, but significantly more than the 0 improvement that they were getting from most people.
The response?
IT SOUNDS LIKE something out of a darkly satirical science-fiction dystopia. But it’s absolutely real — and a completely problematic treatment of a problem that otherwise probably wouldn’t be mentioned in any of the panels at South by Southwest Interactive.
There wouldn’t be any scathing editorials if BBH Labs had just chosen to do nothing – but they did something helpful-but-not-maximally-helpful, and thus are open to judgment.
“The theory claims that observing reality fundamentally changes it.”
That sounds like horse hockey.
There has been no doubt about that for over a thousand years. The proinciple was first expounded in great detail my the Yogacharin View of Buddhadharma. The only new thing revealed in this thread article is that they are applying the same approach to Quantum Physics and the imagination or vizualization of particles. The Yogacharins vizualized gods and whole worlds, subsequently creating them and bringing them into communication via energy.
Makes fascinating reading for those who like to understand the underpinnnings of our "Matrix" of reality.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogachara
"The doctrine of Vijñapti-mātra:
One of the main features of Yogācāra philosophy is the concept of vijñapti-mātra. It is often used interchangeably with the term citta-mātra, but they have different meanings. The standard translation of both terms is "consciousness-only" or "mind-only." Several modern researchers object to this translation, and the accompanying label of "absolute idealism" or "idealistic monism".[10] A better translation for vijñapti-mātra is representation-only,[13] while an alternative translation for citta (mind, thought) mātra (only, exclusively) has not been proposed.
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I think the real concern is that BBH would find out that regardless of what was done or not done the vast majority would be back homeless by choice.
When the particle is measured then the distribution collapses into a single value for each measured property. A measurement does not need to be accompanied by a conscious being recording it.
The Wired article is the one that ripped them. The second concludes more favorably.
They are touching on the Stig Quantum Political theory. Simply stated once a politician is forced into taking a specific stand, they can now be attacked for not choosing any of the other possibilities. Polls will show no one agrees with their position because there will be people on the right and left of that position who disagree with it.
Yes, I’m interested in Matrix expounding.
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