9 Mar
2004
9 Mar
'04
12:38 p.m.
Quantum Mechanics tells us that the platter is
simultaneously
spinning both forward AND backward, and motionless, until YOU had to
go and open up the cover and make it assume a given state ;)
Well...until _something_ causes wavefunction collapse. It's not clear
when wavefunction collapse happens, though there are some good rules of
thumb; the closest I've seen to a theory including a mathematical
specification of when to collapse is Evan Walker's _The Physics Of
Consciousness_ (a book I highly recommend, by the by - his theory, for
all that it has weak spots (and what theory hasn't?) is also one of the
best cases I've seen of explaining more than it sets out to, including
such trivia as why so many creatures sleep).
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