The last time I took a lesson in physics was probably way back in 2006 or 2007. It’s been almost a decade yet I consider myself an astrophysics enthusiast. There are various facets of physics that I really love. Every time I think about them I feel like I understand people and the world a little better. There are two ideas that I like to wonder about: Making sense of chaos and quantum entanglement.
It’s hard to imagine how physics can help us understand people. Physics usually describes properties of inanimate things and conscious decisions can seem inherently chaotic. Imagine for a moment that the gas inside a balloon is made up of millions of particles, which it is. Imagine now the movement of these particles. Their motion is inherently random and chaotic and it is unlikely to be predicted.
Yet there are now equations in physics that can help us understand the movement of these particles on average. I won’t be surprised that another 100 years into the future, psychology and statistics combine to form a realistic type of probability equations that can tell what a large enough group of people will do in a given time.
When we start thinking of physics, the most common law we all remember is that speed of light is constant and nothing moves faster than that. But what if information can flow faster than speed of light? It sounds crazy, doesn’t it. Yet it is true and it is what is now termed as quantum entanglement.
In the quantum world, two particles can become entangled. They basically became part of a whole system and will act as one system no matter how far the particles are. For example, let’s say two particles are entangled. If one of them has a positive spin, the other would have a negative charge.
Until we measure the particles we cannot predict what charges each of them have. In quantum world, these particles exist in probability waves and there is a 50-50 probability of each particle for being positive or negative.
Now let’s say we were to let these particles drift apart let’s say 300,000 KM. For light to travel this distance it would take 1 second. If we were to measure any one of these particles, the wave function collapses into an inherent reality where the particle has a positive or a negative spin. However at that instant the other particle can be observed to have the opposite spin. In some ways the information is exchanged between these particles at faster than speed of light. The moment you make one observation, the reality of other can be determined irrespective of how far it is.
Scientists have already taken this a step further. We have utilized quantum entanglement to teleport information over large distances. It cannot be used to communicate information or beam people but it definitely can, and has, been used to teleport information. Information has been transmitted faster than speed of light. The last I checked we had successfully teleported information over 100 KM using a quantum entangled system.
Theoretically multiple particles can become entangled as well. So the action of one particle will impact the other parts of the system. Taking it further, and I wonder, what if all particles, all matter in this universe was actually entangled already at big bang. How would we know? Would that mean that actions in one part of universe billions of light years away can cause reactions on earth? Are there already living beings that can use this property of physical world to communicate?