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Monday, May 30, 2011

What the Bleep Do We Know? Pseudoscience At It's Best...

"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics".
-Richard Feynman 


     Neo was stuck in a tub. In the movie The Matrix, the main character finds out that the 'real' reality wasn't known to him. A fabricated dream, that he and the entire population of Earth had been subjected to. This type of theory is nothing new, and existed long before The Matrix turned it into popular discussion. Plato's Cave Allegory, which is taught in every Philosophy class around the world, discussing the idea of being shielded from the true level of consciousness.

     New age thinking has begun to try to incorporate science and the idea of quantum physics, and light, and resonances, with spirituality  and some pretty bizarre ideas. In the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know?" They try to  lead the blind public into a belief of false information, and half formed theories. I'm not necessarily against New Age thinking, but just against what this movie trys to lead you to believe about quantum physics 

Let me basically break down what this movie says...


> They make the argument that quantum physics leads us to believe that our reality isn't always static. That because on the subatomic scale particles come into existence only by observation, that we actually create the universe around us.


>Even though our mind and brain has enormous potential for heavy cognitive ability, we only use a small portion of that ability. So we actually miss things and can't perceive certain things .(other dimensions, new levels of consciousness)

    With those two foundations they make the wildly out of left field conclusion that because of both of those 'facts', that humans can create their own reality, simply by observing, and training their minds to craft and mold reality as they want it.

    I'll let you draw your own conclusions, but there is a list of some of the arguments and assumptions they make in the world of quantum physics. I haven't professionally studed quantum theory, and the math of it all is almost unknown to me, but principles and idea's I've read up on, and I'm going to attempt to disprove some of their theories from what I understand at this point...

                                              THE IDEA'S AND THEORIES




The video above is an interesting watch, and I suggest you watch. This is the only part of the movie that was done right. It breaks down the double slit experiment that is easy to understand


Theory #1
Because physical reality is made up of tiny particles, nothing exists. These particles don't exist unless you observe them, that being said, our sight, and minds, create the world around us.

 My Reasoning #1
They're refering to the fact that sub atomic particles like electrons, and protons are almost impossible to measure. That being said, its not that they don't exist, its just that they can't be measured, but they still exist . our sight doesn't solidify an object. The particles bumping around and touch each other, keeps the object measurable.

Theory #2

Because we can only perceive about a fraction of the information that our brain deals with, we're apparently missing out on a world that we can't see, or a new dimension, and that if we were privy to this mind bogglingly large amount of information, we'd be omnipotent beings

My Reasoning #2
While I may entertain the idea that we may be masked to another sort of dimension that we can't see or feel, I'm not even going to pretend to try to reason with the idea that if we used our brain to its full potential, and were able to 'see' all the information coming in, that we'd be these super beings with cosmic powers...



Theory # 3

There's a part in the film where a scientist ( I use that word liberally here), freezes different samples of water in bottles. One bottle has the word love attached to it, and is given loving thoughts and cherished. And the other bottle has the word's "you make me sick" and disregarded and treated like a red headed step child.  Miraclously, the sample that was loved, when frozen formed beautiful ice patterns, and the one with angry thought patterns directed at it, formed ugly, broken ice patterns

My Reasoning #3

I don't understand how they can try to pass this off as trying to prove that our thoughts change reality.. While yes, I do think that the way we think can change how we see things in life.. (glass half empty or half full), I don't think that it works in the literal sense.. If I go and hug and love my turd, its not going to turn into a rose.


Theory # 4

Without human beings, the universe would be this everchanging super position of expanding possibilities. Basically without human observers the sun may or may not exist, or a black hole may or may not suck up Jupiter... because there is no one around to observe anything

My Reasoning # 4
This is absolutely the worst argument they have... What the hell? So if everyone in the world closes there eyes, the universe would become a shifting, ever changing space of possibilities? This theory doesn't hold up and has far too many holes. Human beings aren't on Venus right now... so according to their theory, the surface of Venus could be a big swimming pool filled with  clowns? or it may not even exist



For the sake of time and getting frustrated, I'm going to stop here, this movie, in all honesty...is a joke. A smack in the face to science, and any reasonable person. In one point in the film, the women, who is taking medication for whatever illness plagues her, throws out her medication, and realizes that because she controls her own reality, she can survive without it. Ok Neo sure, go ahead and through away your meds...see how long you last...

Another thing, ( I know I said that I was done, but this one really bothers me) some goofy guy in the movie says that when Columbus came to the new world, on his ships, that the Natives here couldn't really see the ships. That even though they hung in the horizon  before coming to land, the natives couldn't see them, because they had no concept of what a ship was.....
.......


.............................................

Really? Are you serious? I've never seen air molecules, a kangeroo, or Angenlina Jolie's breasts, so your saying if I saw any of the afore mentioned items, I wouldn't be able to see them?  The movie lost any ounce of credibility it had for me. Anyway, I'm seriously done with my argument. I hope you guys do indeed watch the movie, just for the sake of giving yourself a headache. And hey, if you guys have any arguments supporting the movie, write them in the comments section and we can have a debate!
Thanks guys and chime in.



Here have some links to chew on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fWtBq8uWKE&feature=related


57 comments:

  1. While I agree the movie takes lots of liberties in analyzing quantum theory, some of your refutations aren't the best. For example, in #4, what they are stating is not a matter of "having your eyes open" but simply being an observer in the universe. If there are no observers, nothing is observed, and nothing in existence can have any true definition or being. Venus is not in a super position because observing beings exist, and reality is effected by their simple existence. This isn't what I believe, though.

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  2. Theory #3 definitely! Thanks for sharing man, take care.

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  3. I've never heard of the movie before, but sounds like some of the looney-bat shart my aunt would come up with. The meds thing especially irks me, because then people think the same thing of their children and end up killing them. Nevermind that fact that some other human put together the formula for the meds, so therefor, wouldn't that fall under their reality altering clause? What a load of BS.

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  4. hahaha, I'll play the role of the kook here.

    No no no! The world was created about 5,000 years ago. It took 7 days! Dinosaurs were on Noah's ark!

    Great article, and some interesting philosophies out there. According to some, if we didn't think about them, they wouldn't exist....

    My Own Private Idaho

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  5. wow... that made my brain hurt just to wrap my mind around all of that. smart people are smart.

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  6. Wow very interesting video. Will have to save that!

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  7. Alright... that was headache-ful.

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  8. This actually looks quite interesting. But way over my head XD

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  9. Seriously very cool stuff. I can't beleive people came up with this.

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  10. Nice piece! Science fiction is one my favorite kinds of books to read

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  11. Quantum is so... Quantically difficult to separate so we could understand it...

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  12. I laughed @Alpha response lol, but yeah..

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  13. I like the blog. Good luck with it. +1follower

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  14. My high school science teacher showed the class this movie. I think it was far too over my head to buy into any of it though!

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  15. Interesting article, thanks for sharing. :)

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  16. ill have to take a look at this after uni..

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  17. Good view on this, you are running a nice blog!

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  18. It totally annoys me that on the book cover, a capital sigma (greek S) is used as an E, and a pi symbol (greek p) is used as an n. Also, theta (th in greek) is used as an o. GET YOUR GREEK ALPHABET RIGHT. :(

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  19. I want to check this movie out, it sounds very lame and fun to argue with, the cover alone, gosh!

    That double slit experiment video was decent though, simple and easy to understand, if the whole movie was like that though, the slowww talking, I dunno if I could take it.

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  20. GREAT post - I love the quote at the beginning. Too funny!

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  21. quantum mechanics is a very complex science, its very interesting how they are using it for faster computers! the research is fascinating

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  22. Uh great, post, great reasoning. I may have to check out the movie myself one day if Im feeling extra bored

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  23. Im so much into this kind of stuff. Fantastic post. Hope you will be doing more like this.

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  24. Wow, interesting my physics? Ugh. Cool stuff though

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  25. lol i feel like such a kid watching that animation... very interesting.

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  26. I'm not sure what half of that stuff meant, but I'm sure that if I read it enough I'll be able to absorb some information so I can spit it up and imprecise some people.

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  27. Some interesting theories and rebuttals. Reminds me of something I heard once about not seeing actual colors. Something about the way light refracts. So that red blanket isn't really red. We just perceive it as being red. The world is black and white...except for the layer of color upon it...doesn't make sense.

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  28. Wow, this is really interesting...

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  29. @Zemzero Nope, that's actual fact! Color is perceived, its not a concrete attribute of an object.

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  30. This article is very interesting and now must say, I follow this blog.

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  31. Took me a few read-throughs, but I finally hooked onto what they were explaining :P Good read.

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  32. I saw this film in my physics class back in high school. I gotta agree with you that the film is basically a pop science that tries to explain some very complicated notions to the laymen. That being said, you did a good job at myth busting some of the film's fallacies.

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  33. Interesting points you made. I don't believe in any 'New Age'. IMO science is almost always the key.

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  34. some deep stuff man. Looking forward to more!

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  35. I remember watching that program several years ago. It's what really got me interested in the field of quantum mechanics.

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  36. That was fucking an amazing read. tysm!

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  37. Those "theories" seem like a complete joke. The sun may not exist without human observers? What the hell?

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  38. "Now I can see the boats" (you'll get the joke if you see the movie).

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  39. Very nice read indeed. I'm fascinated.

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  40. I actually like those theories!

    "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?"

    Great post!

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