Charles Xavier | Professor X (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
excessivehubris) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ataraxion2012-07-23 03:16 pm
excessivehubris) wrote in ataraxion2012-07-23 03:16 pm
Entry tags:
Video 003
[When the video flicks on, there is an awkward moment where the device is turned around into position until it is set up against something to put the feed on the possibly familiar countenance of Charles Xavier. Before it settles, it shows off what looks to be one of the ship libraries and perhaps a mug of tea and also the inside of Xavier’s forearm.
SCI-007-047, in case anyone was wondering which Xavier was speaking today.
He is sitting in the library, shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbows, obviously deep into some sort of work with a notebook, his expression pensive as he reaches for the mug of tea.]
Many of us, who share a history of Earth, may be familiar with the ‘thought experiment’ or paradox of Schrodinger’s Cat. Schrodinger’s Cat came about from the physicist Erwin Schrodinger as an illustration of what he saw as a problem with the Copenhagen interpretation of the theory of quantum mechanics.
There is a great deal that could be discussed and even debated on this ‘thought experiment’ but at the moment I have been thinking on the superposition property that is tested by Schrodinger’s paradox.
[Pushing himself to his feet, Charles walked from his chair to a whiteboard he had found and drawn upon.]
Superposition property states that ‘for all linear systems, the net response at a given place and time caused by two or more stimuli is the sum of the responses which would have been caused by each stimulus individually.’
Or in other words. [He takes up a marker and begins to write out a mathematical formula] If input A produces response X and input B produces response Y then input (A+B) produces response (X+Y).
Further, mathematically, for a linear system, F, defined by F(x) = y, where x is some sort of stimulus or input and y is some sort of response or output, the superposition (i.e. sum) of stimuli yields a superposition of the respective responses:
F(x1+x2+…) = F(x1) + F(x2)…
[Finishing with the math, he sets the pen down and walks back to his desk.]
I promise, this is not an impromptu math or physics lesson. My point is that, using these models we can come back to the prediction, using quantum mechanics, absent a collapse postulate, that an observer observing a quantum superposition will turn into a superposition of different observers seeing different things. Just like Schrödinger's cat, the observer will have a wavefunction which describes all the possible outcomes. Still, in actual experience, an observer never feels a superposition, but always feels that one of the outcomes has occurred with certainty.
[Has he confused you yet Tranquility? Charles pauses to take a drink of tea, leaning his hip on the table as he looks at his whiteboard.]
I believe it could be argued, that each and every one of us has been placed in the dual position of observer and the cat. We are taken from our linear origins and suspended in the superposition of an infinite number of potentials. We are all also observers to the superposition of the system and our conclusions can collapse the indefinitely suspended wavefunction into a finite possibility of options.
[Stopping himself, Charles finishes off his mug of tea and mentally kicks himself off the urge to keep rambling.]
In other words, to linear lines of origin, or home if you will, we are suspended like the cat, between the superposition of there and not there. To those who would observe us, our friends and loved ones, their observation determines our interpretative state.
They see us, interact with us there and so the wavefunction option determines us as there for those who know us at home. However here, on this ship, it is our state of observation that defines our interaction with this quantum system of superposition.
Or to boil it down further, there are theoretical physics that support the idea that though we are trapped here, experiencing a timeline that may feel like months of separation from our points of origin, we are truly not gone from those points or from the people who would look for us upon them.
This theoretical also addresses the question of why there can be different versions of the same individual on this one convergence of linear lines but that would be a lesson for another day.
Alex? Erik? There is the answer to your question.
[ooc: Holy crap but I am nowhere NEAR Charles Xavier’s level of intelligence. Most of this has been riffed off Wikipedia, interpreted and filtered through my long suffering science nerd of an RP partner.]
SCI-007-047, in case anyone was wondering which Xavier was speaking today.
He is sitting in the library, shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbows, obviously deep into some sort of work with a notebook, his expression pensive as he reaches for the mug of tea.]
Many of us, who share a history of Earth, may be familiar with the ‘thought experiment’ or paradox of Schrodinger’s Cat. Schrodinger’s Cat came about from the physicist Erwin Schrodinger as an illustration of what he saw as a problem with the Copenhagen interpretation of the theory of quantum mechanics.
There is a great deal that could be discussed and even debated on this ‘thought experiment’ but at the moment I have been thinking on the superposition property that is tested by Schrodinger’s paradox.
[Pushing himself to his feet, Charles walked from his chair to a whiteboard he had found and drawn upon.]
Superposition property states that ‘for all linear systems, the net response at a given place and time caused by two or more stimuli is the sum of the responses which would have been caused by each stimulus individually.’
Or in other words. [He takes up a marker and begins to write out a mathematical formula] If input A produces response X and input B produces response Y then input (A+B) produces response (X+Y).
Further, mathematically, for a linear system, F, defined by F(x) = y, where x is some sort of stimulus or input and y is some sort of response or output, the superposition (i.e. sum) of stimuli yields a superposition of the respective responses:
F(x1+x2+…) = F(x1) + F(x2)…
[Finishing with the math, he sets the pen down and walks back to his desk.]
I promise, this is not an impromptu math or physics lesson. My point is that, using these models we can come back to the prediction, using quantum mechanics, absent a collapse postulate, that an observer observing a quantum superposition will turn into a superposition of different observers seeing different things. Just like Schrödinger's cat, the observer will have a wavefunction which describes all the possible outcomes. Still, in actual experience, an observer never feels a superposition, but always feels that one of the outcomes has occurred with certainty.
[Has he confused you yet Tranquility? Charles pauses to take a drink of tea, leaning his hip on the table as he looks at his whiteboard.]
I believe it could be argued, that each and every one of us has been placed in the dual position of observer and the cat. We are taken from our linear origins and suspended in the superposition of an infinite number of potentials. We are all also observers to the superposition of the system and our conclusions can collapse the indefinitely suspended wavefunction into a finite possibility of options.
[Stopping himself, Charles finishes off his mug of tea and mentally kicks himself off the urge to keep rambling.]
In other words, to linear lines of origin, or home if you will, we are suspended like the cat, between the superposition of there and not there. To those who would observe us, our friends and loved ones, their observation determines our interpretative state.
They see us, interact with us there and so the wavefunction option determines us as there for those who know us at home. However here, on this ship, it is our state of observation that defines our interaction with this quantum system of superposition.
Or to boil it down further, there are theoretical physics that support the idea that though we are trapped here, experiencing a timeline that may feel like months of separation from our points of origin, we are truly not gone from those points or from the people who would look for us upon them.
This theoretical also addresses the question of why there can be different versions of the same individual on this one convergence of linear lines but that would be a lesson for another day.
Alex? Erik? There is the answer to your question.
[ooc: Holy crap but I am nowhere NEAR Charles Xavier’s level of intelligence. Most of this has been riffed off Wikipedia, interpreted and filtered through my long suffering science nerd of an RP partner.]
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