Comment on The real double-slit quantum eraser they don't want you to know about!

fiat_lux@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

• HawlSera@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  It basically sounds like he’s saying “The experiment is bullshit, we just can’t measure shit.” but then why isn’t Dual Slit widely debunked then?

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  • fiat_lux@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I wouldn't agree with your paraphrased characterization but I think the reason that the experiment results are widely misunderstood is for the same reason any retraction or updated information can't reach the entire same audience as the original information.

    The experiment was popularised by Feynman in the 60's and widely discussed as the basis for quantum mechanic. Feynman generally was a fucking rad dude, but he did have a penchant for the poetic, which is probably why he was so popular. Einstein weighed in on the concept too, so big names with big topics in a lunar-landing sci-fi loving era. And quantum mechanics was a fun new mindfuck development in its own right.

    So, when a few decades later, the tech catches up to the theory, in experiments by smaller-fame scientists, and the theory further refined; then you've got a legion of adults who grew up with the 60's romantic understanding published in mainstream media, teaching that to the next generation... and you get this.

    I can personally blame Brian Greene's 2005 https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/54483/the-fabric-of-the-cosmos-by-brian-greene/9780141011110. His section on the experiment didn't feel right at the time, but feels aren't reals, so I just went with my very limited understanding of an expert's overview. The refined explanation now feels a lot more sensible, for what it's worth.

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    • HawlSera@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Okay so what would a more accurate summary be, because what I got from that is that the Dual slit was debunked by us not having the proper tools to actually measure things this small. If that’s not it then I sincerely do not get it.

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      • fiat_lux@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        “The experiment is bullshit, we just can’t measure shit.”

        The experiment is limited by our existing tools and evidence, and this will impact both its accuracy and our interpretation of the results, but it's the best we have for now and still worthwhile as a way of producing additional evidence for other researchers.

        Also, researchers typically don't condense information into soundbites well, which prevents people from easily understanding and remembering the accurate information. Which allows bad interpretations by other people of the researchers interpretations of rough results to gain traction.

        In other words, normal science problems.

        An experiment isn't bullshit just because we can't achieve perfection in methodology or human analysis. And we can't perfect our theories and tools without multiple inaccurate answers being compared to find congruence.

        The bullshit starts with the people whose theories which rely on the inaccurate parts refuse to modify the theory when the evidence disagrees.

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