🚀 go-pugleaf

On Fri, 10 Feb 1995, Larry Adams wrote:

> Eric Rude (rudeeric@cwis.isu.edu) wrote:
> > 
> : Hello
> : Here are some questions from some high school students:

> : 1. If there is no animal life present (intelligent or otherwise), when 
> : the sun rises, is there color?
> 
> : 2. Is it possible (theoretically or otherwise) to split a photon? If so, 
> : what would it result in?
> 
> : Thank you.
> 
> : -- 
> : Eric Rude	Pocatello High School
> : rudeeric@cwis.isu.edu
> 

#1: This is actually quite a deep problem, tho' people commonly 
trivialize it with jokes about trees falling in forests, & has to do with 
the "observer problem" in QM as well as the "collapse of the wave 
function" in the same context. I believe that yes, color existed before 
there were any sentient creatures to observe it. Bell, in his _Speakable 
& Unspeakable in QM_, addresses these issues, contrasting the notion of 
"observable" with (his coinage) "beable". 

#2 is also under discussion among scholars, tho' again the common wisdom 
is that all this has been settled long ago. See Bell again, as well as 
Bohm & Hiley's recent _Undivided Universe_.

Hope this is helpful. Sounds like you have some very bright students.

All the best,


Brian Flanagan