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Speed of light is anisotropic? + No math QM + The mathematics of consciousness

#1
C C Offline
There's no way to Measure the Speed of Light in a Single Direction
https://www.universetoday.com/149554/the...direction/

EXCERPT: . . . But several physicists have pointed out that while relativity assumes the vacuum speed of light is a universal constant, it also shows the speed can never be measured. Specifically, relativity forbids you from measuring the time it takes light to travel from point A to point B. To measure the speed of light in one direction, you’d need a synchronized stopwatch at each end, but relative motion affects the rate of your clocks relative to the speed of light. You can’t synchronize them without knowing the speed of light, which you can’t know without measuring. What you can do is use a single stopwatch to measure the round trip time from A to B back to A, and this is what every measurement of the speed of light does.

Since all the round-trip speed of light measurements give a constant result, you might figure you can just divide the time by two and call it a day. This is exactly what Einstein did. He assumed the time there and back was the same. Our experiments agree with that assumption, but they also agree with the idea that the speed of light coming towards us is ten times faster than its speed going away from us. Light doesn’t have to have a constant speed in all directions, it just has to have a constant “average” round-trip speed. Relativity still holds if the speed of light is anisotropic... (MORE - details)


A “no math” (but seven-part) guide to modern quantum mechanics
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/01/...mechanics/

INTRO: Some technical revolutions enter with drama and a bang, others wriggle unnoticed into our everyday experience. And one of the quietest revolutions of our current century has been the entry of quantum mechanics into our everyday technology. It used to be that quantum effects were confined to physics laboratories and delicate experiments. But modern technology increasingly relies on quantum mechanics for its basic operation, and the importance of quantum effects will only grow in the decades to come.

As such, the time has come to explain quantum mechanics—or, at least, its basics. My goal in this seven(!)-part series is to introduce the strangely beautiful effects of quantum mechanics and explain how they’ve come to influence our everyday world. Each edition will include a guided hike into the quantum mechanical woods where we’ll admire a new—and often surprising—effect. Once back at the visitor’s center, we’ll talk about how that effect is used in technology and where to look for it.

Embarking on a series of quantum mechanics articles can be intimidating. Few things trigger more fear than “a simple introduction to physics.” But to the intrepid and brave, I will make a few promises before we start:
  • No math. While the language of quantum mechanics is written using fairly advanced math, I don’t believe one has to read Japanese before you can appreciate Japanese art. Our journey will focus on the beauty of the quantum world.
  • No philosophy. There has been a fascination with the ‘meaning’ of quantum mechanics, but we’ll leave that discussion for pints down at the pub. Here we will focus on what we see.
  • Everything we encounter will be experimentally verified. While some of the results might be surprising, nothing we encounter will be speculative.
If you choose to follow me through this series of articles, we will see quantum phenomena on galactic scales, watch particles blend and mix, and see how these effects give rise to both our current technology and advances that are on the verge of making it out of the lab. So put on your mental hiking boots, grab your binoculars, and follow me as we set out to explore the quantum world.... (MORE)


The mathematics of consciousness
https://backreaction.blogspot.com/2021/0...sness.html

INTRO: Physicists like to think they can explain everything, and that, of course, includes human consciousness. And so in the last few decades they’ve set out to demystify the brain by throwing math at the problem. Last year, I attended a workshop on the mathematics of consciousness in Oxford. Back then, when we still met other people in real life, remember that?

I find it to be a really interesting development that physicists take on consciousness, and so, today I want to talk a little about ideas for how consciousness can be described mathematically, how that’s going so far, and what we can hope to learn from it in the future. The currently most popular mathematical approach to consciousness is integrated information theory, IIT for short. It was put forward by a neurologist, Giulio Tononi, in two thousand and four... (MORE)


https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/efVBUDnD_no
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#2
Zinjanthropos Offline
Does it mean that a radio signal bounced off a dish gets to you at speed >c? What if space acts like a mirror?

Could this reflective nature help explain entanglement?
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#3
Syne Offline
(Jan 12, 2021 05:39 AM)C C Wrote: There's no way to Measure the Speed of Light in a Single Direction
https://www.universetoday.com/149554/the...direction/

EXCERPT: . . . But several physicists have pointed out that while relativity assumes the vacuum speed of light is a universal constant, it also shows the speed can never be measured. Specifically, relativity forbids you from measuring the time it takes light to travel from point A to point B. To measure the speed of light in one direction, you’d need a synchronized stopwatch at each end, but relative motion affects the rate of your clocks relative to the speed of light. You can’t synchronize them without knowing the speed of light, which you can’t know without measuring. What you can do is use a single stopwatch to measure the round trip time from A to B back to A, and this is what every measurement of the speed of light does.

Scientifically illiterate bullshit. Yes, relative motion does affect the rate of clocks, but we can measure the light between two sources in the same frame of reference, not in relative motion to one another. You don't need to know the speed of light to know that two points are not moving relative to each other.
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#4
Ostronomos Offline
CC,

When they talk about the "distribution of information in such a way that phi becomes very large", are they referring to the model given by the IIT to objectively measure phi and the way information is distributed between the synapses of say a conscious being like a worm?
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#5
C C Offline
(Jan 12, 2021 09:20 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: Does it mean that a radio signal bounced off a dish gets to you at speed >c? What if space acts like a mirror?

Could this reflective nature help explain entanglement?


What they're referring to is anisotropic light being applied to to a "Milne" type universe (which is so simple that it enables them to simulate or predict what happens). Essentially what such is claimed to demonstrate is that even if light did vary in direction (which according to gospel it does not in this universe), then relativisitic considerations would still intervene and render an illusion for observers that light omnidirectionally had the same speed.

EDIT: Or were you instead referring to something in that 2nd article, guide to QM?


(Jan 13, 2021 05:43 PM)Ostronomos Wrote: CC,

When they talk about the "distribution of information in such a way that phi becomes very large", are they referring to the model given by the IIT to objectively measure phi and the way information is distributed between the synapses of say a conscious being like a worm?

QUOTE: "The better a system is at distributing information while it’s processing the information, the larger Phi."

However, the theory would have to entail that information has both a qualitative state and a quantitative state at an elemental level to make any sense for explaining experience (along with the rest). Thereby Phi would really be a measure of how complex an experience is, without necessarily addressing cognition (awareness and identification of what was manifesting). The latter requires a memory sub-system devoted to that task, which arbitrary systems are not going to have (minus evolutionary or artificial modifications providing it).
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#6
Kornee Offline
(Jan 12, 2021 05:39 AM)C C Wrote: There's no way to Measure the Speed of Light in a Single Direction
https://www.universetoday.com/149554/the...direction/

EXCERPT: . . . But several physicists have pointed out that while relativity assumes the vacuum speed of light is a universal constant, it also shows the speed can never be measured. Specifically, relativity forbids you from measuring the time it takes light to travel from point A to point B. To measure the speed of light in one direction, you’d need a synchronized stopwatch at each end, but relative motion affects the rate of your clocks relative to the speed of light. You can’t synchronize them without knowing the speed of light, which you can’t know without measuring. What you can do is use a single stopwatch to measure the round trip time from A to B back to A, and this is what every measurement of the speed of light does.

Since all the round-trip speed of light measurements give a constant result, you might figure you can just divide the time by two and call it a day. This is exactly what Einstein did. He assumed the time there and back was the same. Our experiments agree with that assumption, but they also agree with the idea that the speed of light coming towards us is ten times faster than its speed going away from us. Light doesn’t have to have a constant speed in all directions, it just has to have a constant “average” round-trip speed. Relativity still holds if the speed of light is anisotropic... (MORE - details)

Stumbled upon this 'old' thread. Seems to me there's simply no need to try and directly measure a one-way c. Just prove it has no directional dependence indirectly.

Firstly, check if e.g. a stable laser beam's measured frequency, emitter to receiver, is independent of direction (no Doppler shifting going on via 'Ether flow' or some such notional 'directional bias').

Given it is, all that's left is to look for any presence of (spatial) beat behavior in the interference pattern of a reflected monochromatic beam in e.g. a length of optical fiber.
Need not even be the same source beam used for frequency measurements. Just sufficiently frequency stable emission(s).
Absence of any such beats (to within experimental precision), together with directional frequency independence (again, to within instrumental precision) guarantees c must be independent of direction.

To be real sure one repeats along three mutually orthogonal Cartesian axes. Allowing for Earth's rotation and all that.
Almost prepared to say this was all settled way back by Michelson & Morley - except they couldn't have performed the necessarily fine frequency measurements then.

Both the frequency and beat measurements assume and require no 'bugbear issue' relative motions at all, apart from each initial setup of instruments obviously.
[Trivial caveat - this all assumes no appreciable LIGO style fringe shifting due to a passing GW. A fairly safe bet!]

Easy. Hard to believe that simple and readily realizable gedanken experiment hasn't long been thought of. And tried, maybe many times.
Assuming it has (no point imo in even searching, but others are welcome to try), where is there any real quandary?
Something essential somehow overlooked above? What? Maybe just a pedantic purist 'enigma' kept alive by internet celebrity science presenters when news elsewhere is slow
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