Beth MorganApr 25, 2023
halophoenix

I spent a good chunk of this weekend with this story. It's...definitely in the weeds of quantum theory, but I'm deeply interested in the notion that the universe itself, through the mechanism of black holes, is a "participatory observer" that can decohere quantum states.

https://www.wired.com/story/black-holes-will-destroy-all-quantum-states/

Researchers Argue Black Holes Will Destroy All Quantum States

New calculations suggest that the event horizons will eventually “decohere” quantum possibilities—even those that are far away.

WIRED
Apr 25, 2023 at 10:22pmWeb
Show threadhalophoenixApr 25, 2023
It's just a theory, one that even during my days in the field we'd probably just quirk our heads at, wonder about, and then go back to something else - so don't take this as some grand truth of the universe, but it is intriguing that there's so much we don't know.
Show threadhalophoenixApr 25, 2023
And not just about cosmological topography and the cosmological horizon, for as meaningful as those terms are at this frontier of research. It's fascinating, in that astrophysics-on-the-border-of-philosophy kind of way.