A great book on the subject in "The God Effect", by Brian Clegg.
The fact that we have confirmed that this phenomenon is real is insane! This opens the door to all sorts of things that should be impossible.
For one, it violates some of the rules of spacetime.
For example: You have two sets of entangled particles, we'll call them 1a, 1b, 2a & 2b. They exist both on Earth (1a & 2a), and onboard a spaceship travelling 99% the speed of light away from the Earth at a distance of 1 LY (1b & 2b). On Earth, we trigger a wave-function collapse of 1a, which instantaneously causes the collapse of 1b. Then, a machine onboard the ship triggers the collapse of 2b, thereby causing 2a to collapse.
Now, the delay between 1a and 2a collapsing should be the exact amount of time that the machine onboard the spacecraft can detect the collapse of 1b and trigger the collapse of 2b, however, if we introduce general relativity and time-dilation, the collapse of 2a should happen nearly an entire year before the collapse of 1a (the effect comes before the cause).
Now, if we can perfect this phenomenon so that we can actually send real data instantaneously between two points, we could actually send data backwards in time.
If this works out the way it does on paper, testing space-travel paradoxes could be real.
Thinking back to the previous example: Imagine that the collapse of 2a were to trigger a mechanism that collapses 1a. If the collapse of 1a causes collapse of 2a retroactively, which one would collapse first?
Please, learn more about physics before saying this kind of things.. If you can come up with a thought experiment which violates physics law, it just means that your thought experiment is flawed.
And 'spooky action at distance' cannot be used to send data faster than light.
For your specific thought experiment, how do you know when a 'wave function' collapsed? You don't.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 16.3 ms ] threadThe fact that we have confirmed that this phenomenon is real is insane! This opens the door to all sorts of things that should be impossible.
For one, it violates some of the rules of spacetime.
For example: You have two sets of entangled particles, we'll call them 1a, 1b, 2a & 2b. They exist both on Earth (1a & 2a), and onboard a spaceship travelling 99% the speed of light away from the Earth at a distance of 1 LY (1b & 2b). On Earth, we trigger a wave-function collapse of 1a, which instantaneously causes the collapse of 1b. Then, a machine onboard the ship triggers the collapse of 2b, thereby causing 2a to collapse.
Now, the delay between 1a and 2a collapsing should be the exact amount of time that the machine onboard the spacecraft can detect the collapse of 1b and trigger the collapse of 2b, however, if we introduce general relativity and time-dilation, the collapse of 2a should happen nearly an entire year before the collapse of 1a (the effect comes before the cause).
Now, if we can perfect this phenomenon so that we can actually send real data instantaneously between two points, we could actually send data backwards in time.
If this works out the way it does on paper, testing space-travel paradoxes could be real.
Thinking back to the previous example: Imagine that the collapse of 2a were to trigger a mechanism that collapses 1a. If the collapse of 1a causes collapse of 2a retroactively, which one would collapse first?
You cannot detect a collapse.
Now, if we can perfect this phenomenon so that we can actually send real data instantaneously between two points,
No information can be transmitted using just entangled photons.
For your specific thought experiment, how do you know when a 'wave function' collapsed? You don't.