In Hilbert space, all things are quantumly possible

 (quantamagazine.org)

37 points | by unprovable 2 hours ago

4 comments

  • djsjajah 6 minutes ago
    Not all things are possible, only potentially possible ones. If you take all the numbers between zero and one, you will find an endless supply of distinct numbers but none of them are 3.
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    • tcdent 1 minute ago
      Aren't you really just talking about the level of abstraction being applied? If there are infinite possibilities between zero and one, then it's just our way of relating to it that imposes the perception of a limitation.
  • rozgo 54 minutes ago
    "I would like to make a confession which may seem immoral: I do not believe absolutely in Hilbert space anymore." - John von Neumann
  • thrill 1 hour ago
    [flagged]
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    • katzgrau 1 hour ago
      Or, there is no time. Awareness traverses the grand graph of possibility.

      Disclaimer: total armchair philosophy.

    • SantalBlush 1 hour ago
      Given infinite time, is it possible to randomly draw a rational (instead of an irrational) from the interval [0, 1]? And if so, is it possible infinite times?
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      • rablackburn 35 minutes ago
        Finally, a well-formed question to which the answer "42 (times)" is a possible solution.
      • adrianN 30 minutes ago
        "Randomly" drawing anything from [0,1] is already quite difficult.
      • LPisGood 33 minutes ago
        Certainly! Probability 0 does not mean impossible.
  • ocschwar 48 minutes ago
    "What is a Hilbert space?"

    -- David Hilbert.

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    • cgio 36 minutes ago
      The nice additional reading is that you could even know what a Hilbert space is, but not what is a Hilbert space.