X-Message-Number: 15021
From: 
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2000 13:41:08 EST
Subject: Clancy, brief comment

Pat Clancy (#15014) notes that quantum predictions have been verified to a 
higher degree of accuracy than those of other theories, and is therefore 
(aside from questions of interpretation) universally accepted by scientists 
as correct.

That high degree of accuracy isn't enough by a long shot. One need only look 
at any beginning text book of quantum mechanics, and you will see, for 
example, little illustrative examples of calculations such as those for a 
particle in a flat well moving in one dimension and otherwise isolated. But 
in the real world there is no such thing as an isolated particle--at a 
minimum, every particle at all times is affected by gravitational 
interactions. The effects of the gravitational interactions are generally 
much smaller than the measured probable error in experiments, so they are 
"negligible" for most purposes--nevertheless, we KNOW that something has been 
left out.

Whether this has any bearing on questions of sentience is still another 
question. Probably not, but we don't know. 

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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