I just don’t get it …

There are a few things I’ve read today that I really don’t get – in different ways. One is sciencey-cool, one is magic, and the last is cruel and stupid and upsetting. I might start with the latter, so at least there’s something light-hearted to finish the post. But first, here’s something about perplexity (other than the perplexing pic of Sean Connery to the right):

Perplexity is a measurement in information theory. It is defined as b raised to the power of entropy in base b, or more often as b raised to the power of cross-entropy in base b. The latter definition is commonly used to compare probability models.

Amusingly, I find that definition causes me no small amount of perplexity Anyway, on to the subjects of today’s post … (skip to part the second if you just want the light hearted and sciencey sections):

Part the First

First, something posted by Monica at Monicks.net. I would advise not following the link if you have children or are just a gentle-hearted and empathic person, as it’s really awful and sad. Essentially, a poverty-stricken couple sacrificed (brutally) their 4 year old daughter at the urging of some shithead of a tantrik (exorcist). The reason they did this? To get rich. I don’t get it. For a start, the fact that they believed that killing their child would bring them material wealth is fucked enough – but no matter how poverty-stricken one might be, to kill one’s child in order to get out of that poverty? I cannot wrap my head around such a horrifying callous disregard for life, for a child – and not just any child, but for their own daughter.

Horrifying.

Part the Second

Secondly, homeopaths. Now I know I’ve talked about not being a dick, but to be honest I don’t know how successful I’ll be at that. I promise (sort of) that I’ll try (maybe) to be not-a-dick, but … it’s homeopathy; it’ll be pretty hard. Anyhoo, this was something I was led to by Medtek: a homeopathic proving of … wait for it … water.

…

… ok, have you all quite finished laughing? It wasn’t normal water, you know (plain old H2O); this was “aquanova” – made by combining hydrogen with, well, with oxygen actually. But it’s a different sort of H2O, obviously, because the next step is to dilute this new special water in … water … and shake it a few times, and dilute in more … water … and repeat until there’s none of the original … water … left, and you just have  … water.

…

I’ll probably have to wait a bit longer for you all to stop laughing at this point – and take the opportunity to marshall my not-being-a-dick forces, which appear to have scattered. Something this really leads me to wonder: do homeopaths actually believe this? I mean srsly, anyone who can say this with a straight face either believes it, or they’re a con-artist. To be honest I don’t know which I would think worse. While the con-artist notion would be reprehensible, awful, and dangerous, at least it would be understandable in light of at least some human beings’ tendency to take advantage of others. On the other hand, if they really truly believe that water is different from water, and when you dilute it in water until there’s only water left, and no water, that you get a remedy that will treat something (what, I don’t know) … I just don’t know how to even begin to approach it.  It’s not about not knowing science; it’s about believing something that flies in the face of logic itself (of course yes it does also fly in the face of every bit of science around – being that it is actually magic they believe in). – And of course it’s still dangerous.

Part the Third

Thirdly, the sciencey-cool thing: How smart do you need to be to collapse a wave function?

Particles are literally in many places at once, each with some probability. Take an electron and fire it at a screen with two slits cut through it, and astonishingly, the electron will go through both slits simultaneously. But suppose you set up a pair of cameras to monitor which slit the electron goes through and suddenly – poof – the “wave function collapses” and it really goes through only one of the two.  Somehow observing the system directly affects it.

So far so weird (and perplexing) but then:

In 1978, John Wheeler proposed his “delayed choice” experiment in which a detector was set up to observe the slits after a particle had already passed through it, and this experiment was actually performed a few years ago.  It turns out that you can retroactively force the wave function to collapse.  That is messed up.

Yeah it’s messed up. The electron goes through both slits, but then you observe the slits afterwards, and suddenly the electron only went through one of them. In. The. Past.

That sound you just heard? That was your brain breaking. Mine did it already. Don’t worry, there’s plenty you can do without a brain: watch The View, for instance.

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Tags: aquanova, confusion, exorcism, homeopathy, perplexity, physics, quantum, schrodinger, woo