What the Bleep do we Know?

[kitesurferdale]

Ok people, I just watched this video titled "What the bleep do we know" and all I can say is that everybody needs to see this film. not going to say much more than this, but would love to hear from others that have seen this film and their experience viewing it.

[Mattdog]

Hi, I saw it too on video. It's pretty neat, new age, metaphysical mumbo jumbo, although a little random and jumbled the way it's presented. There's a sequel coming out this year too. You can see for the most part the people they interview, having made the realizations they have, are at peace with themselves and the world, a state I acheive only while kitesurfing and for an hour or two after a satisfying session.

[jjjim]

If you're interested, the Big Bang Theory (Quantum Cosmology) is perhaps the most fascinating thing humans have come up with. Some writers that I have found particularly enlightening are Brian Greene (the Elegant Universe,the Fabric of the Universe) John Barrow, and Lee Smolin (Three Roads to Quantum Gravity). You don't have to be smart to understand it either; apparently. I't great stuff to think about while doing the infamous "walk of shame". Kind of gives you a nice perspective.

[mortontoemike]

I saw the movie and felt that it used Quantum Theory to create a sort of spiritual fog, in which things were difficult to figure out because you could only see their fuzzy edges. Professor Murray Gell-Mann, the recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1969 for his theoretical work which led up to the idea of the quark, calls this kind of fuzzy rationalization " Quantum Mechanics Flapdoodle"

see: http://www.williamjames.com/transcripts/gell1.htm

I think this blog

http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2005 ... leep_.html

puts it very succinctly. "The premise of the film is that quantum mechanics proves a conscious observer is necessary to create reality. The conclusion is we literally create reality with our thoughts. Unfortunately the theory of quantum mechanics does not say this. The film makers are confusing the theory of quantum mechanics with an interpretation of quantum mechanics."

Look in particular at the quote from David Albert, the professor from the Columbia University physics department who appeared in the movie.

"I was edited in such a way as to completely suppress my actual views about the matters the movie discusses. I am, indeed, profoundly unsympathetic to attempts at linking quantum mechanics with consciousness. Moreover, I explained all that, at great length, on camera, to the producers of the film ... Had I known that I would have been so radically misrepresented in the movie, I would certainly not have agreed to be filmed."

The blog makes for very entartaining reading. Much more entertaining then the movie in my opinion. But hey! If it touches a cord with you and makes you feel better about yourself, there can't be too much wrong with that. It just isn't science that's all.

[jjjim]

Right on MB! But maybe it will lead someone to be curious enough about quantum stuff to check it out, to learn about science, and hence, become a better sailor. Or something like that.
How about the "many worlds" scenario (I believe it's called the Coopenhagen interpretation). From what I understand, it's what most modern physicists believe to be true as it is mathematically "correct".
So there's a universe where I loop regularly as opposed to this one which is loop -free? Still another where I never sail at all? No way... not possible.

[colin]

quantum is death, i never want to revisit it

[JL]

Great link M.B...I'm into 'Quantum weather forecasting'...For a while I thought I was a weather medium for the 'Big Kahuna'...BUT then I remembered I just read the title in a meterological paper !!! I guess I will have to keep my day job.

[mortontoemike]

Hey. I am all in favour of using quantum mechanics to create my own reality. The trouble is I have no idea how to do it and the movie didn't help me learn the methodology. IF I could harness the power of quantology to create my own reality ..... doo, doo, doo, doo .... Jericho, BC and Kanaha, Maui would look identical and I would be doing forward loops at the edge of the Jericho Sailing Club Pier ..... my hair (which I don't currently have) would blow wildy in the wind on each successful duck jibe (which I have tried but so far have been unsuccessfull) ..... I wouldn't have to pay for new equipment .... and finally .... I wouldn't have to explain to all my colleagues who think that kiteboarding is about the coolest thing they have ever seen, that windsurfing is also cool even though you don't end up 20 ft in the air on every reach! Really! It's tres cool! Doh! My quantum reality beats your quantum reality .....

[colin]

http://scitation.aip.org/getpdf/servlet ... rog=normal

can someone write a half to one page review on this for me,

thanks

[downwind dave]

Once i understand "donnie darko" ill give this one a go.

[kitesurferdale]

You know I thought the movie is cool that much is clear. The comments about the one fellow being misrepresented in the editing is interesting, but as per the fog, I think they deal with that in one of the other guests explanation, that if we could truly believe with every ounce of our soul the reality that we wish to create, it would exist. I think this is entirely possible, however that reality might only exist in our mind (while you have a visit in a asylum of some sort). My take on science, quantum or not, is that if you don't think it, ponder it, test it, research and debate it then you won't explore it. In my mind this would mean people wouldn't come up with new ideas and theories which lead to new science and discoveries. So with this movie, even if one person may have been misrepresented/quoted (unfortunate and wrong), it remains cool to me as it puts forth in a fairly understandable format, ideas for the masses to think about. As stated in the end "ponder that".