Quantum superposition is a state whereby an object (a particle, atom, molecule or grouping thereof) takes on two (or more) states (or properties) at once - like a light switch that is both on and off. Superposition is one of the weirdest things ever discovered by humanity and it will have profound ramifications for years to come - the latest example being quantum computers, which are in their inchoate stage of evolution but will probably be fully formed in 10 or 20 years.
In any case, superposition ends when the Schrödinger wave equation collapses, forcing the superposition to fall into a "normal state" and pick one of the "opposing" states to fall into. The problem is that Physicists have NO idea what makes the wave collapse. Which, you would think, would be a problem that every particle/quantum physicist would be up all night every night trying to solve. Instead, they shoulder shrug. Bizarre reaction if you ask me. Anyhow... Supposedly, it is interference from the immediate surroundings of the object in superposition that causes the wave collapse. Up until recently, only incredibly microscopic particles were thought capable of being put into superposition because there is so much "interference" from the external world that anything larger than a particle is quickly knocked by gravity, or electro-magnetic forces, etc back into a normal state. The idea being that the world is filled up with all sorts of "interfering" influences. Now, it turns out macroscopic objects CAN be put in superposition (which, if you have half a brain, should at the very least be startling):
I repeat: This means that macroscopic entities can be put into superposition. Hypothetically, we will soon be able to actually turn a regular cat into a REAL Schrödinger's cat (Schrödinger's cat was created as a thought experiment and so was meant and thought to be only a hypothetical possibility). This means that, very soon, we may be able to ask "What is it like to be in superposition from a subjective point of view?". In other words if you yourself were put into superposition, what would that be like? What would it be like to be in an environment that is in superposition - to be in a room where the light is off AND on? To think a thought and NOT think a thought?
Evidently the key to magnifying the effects of superposition is a "qubit bridge". From the above article:
The key was to connect the resonating strip to a superconducting qubit – a tiny electric circuit that can easily be prepared in a quantum superposition of two energy states. "The qubit acts as a bridge between the microscopic and the macroscopic worlds," says O'Connell. By tuning the frequency at which the qubit cycled between its two states to match the resonant frequency of the metallic strip, the qubit's quantum state could be transferred to the resonator at will.
Which brings me to the thrust of my posting. If:
a) it is the surrounding local environment that forces a superposition to end and
b) the effects of superposition can be magnified and
c) this magnification effect can be created to cascade such that condition a above is suspended in the immediate local area where b is happening and whereby this step c leads back to step b in a ever widening sphere of influence then
d) the whole universe could be put into superposition resulting in
e) a state whereby there is no outside locality with which to force the quantum wave collapse resulting in
f) the end of the causal universe since nothing can be truly said to happen if nothing is causing anything else meaning
g) the universe is destroyed because nothing is happening. Technically the universe would still "exist" but it would exist at that point only as a potentiality.
If the effect of this propagation occurred at the speed of light, in literally less than a second, the earth would be placed in superposition effectively stopping life as we know it and, assuming the effect grows without stopping, then the earth would be at the center of the propagation and would never fall out of superposition as the sphere of influence grew wider and wider, so even if the entire universe was infinite and it took an infinite amount of time for the effect to propagate throughout the entire universe that fact would have no bearing on earth where the propagation started.
What if the effect grew to the solar level or the galactic level and then collapsed back? Who knows? Maybe everything would snap back as if nothing had happened, but I doubt it as the time that would have elapsed would have been significant and then the question becomes "What happens to complex systems that are placed in superposition over extended periods?". My guess is that everything gets scrambled like an egg.
Three parting thoughts:
1) This all is yet another reason to fear science and/or the large hadron collider.
2) Maybe the rapture that Christians speak of is merely the superposition of all humanity.
3) Maybe being placed into superposition will be like a drug. Maybe it is an amazing unverbalizable orgasmic and yet terrifying religious epiphany. Perhaps within years we will have a whole new counterculture of superpositional addicts and superpositional psychonauts. Who then will be the Albert Hofmann of the future?
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