I want to do it. But I may need some help. Specifically, computer programming.
I have some basic programming knowledge, and what I wish to attempt is basic enough that any programming language could easily accommodate it. I'm planning on writing the code myself (probably something basic like Pascal) but it's the format of the program that's vexing me.
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Now some quantum info:
A quantum superposition is when there is precisely (precisely) 50% chance of two different outcomes occurring, and no incentive for one or the other to occur. Until the system is compromised or it is observed (which would compromise it) it is literally in both states. Anyone familiar with Schrodinger's cat will recognize this scenario.
And no, it's not that we don't know what it is until we observe it, but it's definitely one or the other. It literally acts as both simultaneously until the quantum position collapses. The act of observation "decides" which of the two it is. Studies have been able to show particles acting in two different ways until the quantum position collapses, so this is observed, not simply theorized.
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So my program. Here's the scenario:
You enter two numbers, and the computer generates either a 4 or a 6. It has to be one of these two numbers, and can be nothing else. Which one it is is determined by your input. Say you enter 5 and 9. It take the mean (average) and whichever number is closest is displayed. In this case the mean is 7, so the computer would display a 6.
But say you enter a 4 and a 6, or two 5's, or -12 and 22. The mean is 5. But the computer has to output a 4 or a 6.
But any program I have conceived would output some sort of error message. I can't figure out a way that it by-passes the indecision without altering the 50/50 nature of the test. Maybe it's that my programming is rusty, or I'm assuming an error message (I have yet to actually write the code for it), but I'll doubtless have some hoops to jump through.
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Thoughts? Help? I want this to be my "cat," and it's tantalizingly close.
^wont work. programs depend on electrical impulses and those are predictable systems. randomness is computers is not truly random because the computer claims that it uses algorythms which never REPEAT the same choice/list twice, and sumthing that doesnt repeat is by definition not random. hehe, srry, i dun know much about computers at all, but heres my two cents.
also, id like to say sumthing on the schrodinger cat and both states existing simultaneously, but i desist from starting an off topic discussion which might end up tiring.
I am not sure if I understood what you are doing, but if you are trying to use an algorithm to simulate true randomness(like quantum uncertainty), then know that it is impossible.
Any programs that work based on randomness only use an "illusory" randomness. They are not truly aleatory. Randomization in computation work based on a factor which is completely predictable and determined but you don't know what it is so you can't predict the result, but you could if you knew.
For example, you can make randomness by using the milliseconds on the computer clock by assigning each possible result that you want to randomize to one number, and when you click a button the computer read the millisecond number value and returns the result corresponding to that number. Like a roulette, and thats not true randomness.
Any randomization in computation must be based on a event which is completely predictable. Its impossible to create an algorithm which creates true randomness, that is against logic itself.
True randomness does only exist in quantum mechanics and you can't reduce quantum uncertainty to logic algorithms. Quantum uncertainty is an entirely new phenomena and thats why it is so important.
You can't create quantum superposition in normal computers so don't try it anymore. The only way is to use a computer which works based on something truly random, like quantum mechanics. That would be a quantum computer.
Note: Superposition really assumes you believe some of what I would call the "mystical" interpretations of quantum mechanics. A large number of physicists (which I am not [re: a physicist]) see quantum mechanics as little more than an advanced ruler, basically a tool for measuring extremely small items, which is still imperfect. Imho, something like Schrodinger's cat is an example of the limit of this tool at this point to make perfect predictions and does not exemplify some "strangeness" of quantum physics...
Also, I don't think computer code or calculation has the ability to be put into a quantum state. You would need an electron that could either have spin up or down depending on the output, and then do the numbers...
I also think it would be limited because a situation of something being a 5 in this isn't an either/or (ie, it isn't a photon-slit experiment where the light goes one way or the other) but instead it is a both, meaning that "5" satisfies the conditions for both 4 and 6 outputs.
I'd also be really interested in the findings from studies showing superposition, any sources?
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Re: Creating a Quantum Superposition
You need a random number generator. You can embed a random number generator into programming all sorts of ways. You should write up the program for something like
if x*=4 or 6 then start programed named (insert program name and or script for locating, starting, and plugging in the numbers in the scenario.)
I know that is waaay off from any program language but I tried to be generic with how I defined it. I am not a programmer and I hate programming.
I don't understand why you have to first calculate the mean value of two different numbers.
Ok if I get what you are saying is that you want the computer to random generate numbers based on the mean, but when the mean falls precisely inbetween the two outcomes you want it to pick a certain number randomly as its desired choice? And you want this to happen with out any bias from yourself.
Not gonna happen even the Random Function in and of itself isn't truly random. In computer programing everything comes back to two possible outcomes being used to code for something else by creating sequences of Ons and Offs.
Therefore any program you right that chooses one or the other will always be decided by yourself or the sequence leadin up to it.
Or let me put it this way.
You would to right it like this:
If X becomes Exact Number Inbetween 4 and 6
Then Random(4, 6)
Outcome equals decision of random sequence.
There can never be a none decision made left to the computer.
Now what you can do is except that it may simulate what you want on some high probability level. Essentially a simulated coin flip if you will. It's not exactly what you want but if something is illogically capable of being understood then the computer can not help you do it.
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Jan 17th, 2008 05:20 AM
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