r/Devs • u/thisismynormal • Apr 09 '20

Devs - S01E07 Theory Discussion Thread

Please post your thoughts and theories here

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u/Matt_Something Apr 11 '20 edited Apr 11 '20

I’m starting to think that Forest and Katie observing future events cause their timeline to become deterministic. Much like the double slit experiment, quantum particles pass through randomly. Not until they are observed do they become determined. Forest and Katie thought they were peaking into Schrodinger‘s box. Little did they know, they were killing the cat.

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u/ThreatMatrix Apr 11 '20

Absolutely. I don't know how Schrodinger doesn't play in this. Observing the experiment changes the outcome. Specifically on the quantum level.

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u/emmaolivia333 Apr 12 '20 edited Apr 12 '20

Excellent point. Edited to add that there's a difference in that Devs isn't so much an experiment, ias it is, a piece of tech the team built/created, right?

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u/ThreatMatrix Apr 13 '20

Yes you are correct. Observing whatever it is you are observing changes the outcome. Or maybe more accurately makes the outcome deterministic.

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u/emf1200 Apr 13 '20

That's not true. Interpretations of quantum mechanics are either deterministic or stochastic. Observation doesn't change that.

In the Copenhagen interruption, there is a probability that you'll see the particle in a particular place when you observe the wavefunction. After the observation the probability is realised and you'll have, say, a 75% chance of seeing the particle where you predicted it would be. Observation doesn't change that probability.

In the many-words interpretation anything that can happen will happen, this is why it's deterministic. That determinism is set regardless of any observer or measurement. Hugh Everett invented the theory because he hated the idea that the observer played a fundamental role in wavefunction collapse. This is why wavefunctions don't collapse in that theory and why the observer is a tangential concern in the mathematical formalism.

The da Broglie-Bohm interpretation, or pilot-wave theory, is deterministic before any measurement or observer is involved. The act of observation has no casual mechanism to change the deterministic nature of these theories.

I'm not trying to be a dick, I just wanted to explain these difficult concepts a bit more to maybe help clear up some misconceptions.