Spren: related to the quantum theory

[vcblade]

I was reading about Schrödinger's Cat experiment and I came across the theory of quantum superposition.  I think its related to spren in a way.     According to Wiki, It is a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics that holds that a physical system—such as an electron—exists partly in all its particular theoretically possible states (or, configuration of its properties) simultaneously; but, when measured or observed, it gives a result corresponding to only one of the possible configurations.     Anyways, I remembered when the spren are quanitatively measured and

recorded they stop changing and therefore "defined" in a constant state

 

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Edited August 13, 2013 by vcblade

[Kurkistan he/him]

Welcome to the forums!

 

The thought has been floated before, though it's important to remember that quantum states collapse when observed because the act of observing means hitting the observed with something: a photon or a particle or whatnot. The universe does't track whether a sophont is looking at something.

 

That being said, the Cosmere does track that kind of thing, and the idea of spren as existing as "generalized" entities until they're nailed down into a specific form does have merit.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Kurkistan

[happyman he/him]

Ah, the wonderful sight of people getting their feet wet in the wonderful world of quantum indeterminacy.  It's the debate that just keeps on giving, no matter how much you learn about the subject.  And I'm speaking as a professional physicist here.

So to avoid a really boring and technical discussion, I'll just say that the ideas seem related, but not if you push too hard into the details.  This isn't helped in the slightest by the fact that nobody's quite sure how the quantum world actually works.  There is no better way to start a group of physicists arguing than to drop the questions into a discussion.

[Pechvarry]

Yeah, this is why I like to follow happyman around the forums and challenge his well-thought-out scientific answers with my first-line-of-wikipedia-article level knowledge. Dunning-Kruger at its finest (assuming I understand what that is from 1 sentence of its Wikipedia article).

[Pattern he/him]

There definitely is a similarity, but recent WoBs pointed more to the importance of belief. Spren seem to become what people believe them to be. So when the size of a flamespren is measured and the size is recorded, the recording is the manifestation that the person who wrote down the number believes in that measured size. In consequence the spren locks at that measured size. Additionally the written numbers could be used to convince other people that the spren has that size, so it is even more "captured".

[SnopyDogy]

I've been thinking of spren in terms of (my limited understanding of) quantum mechanics myself lately. I have a theory that all spren start of in a base, stable state I.e a shard of investiture. When it interacts with some intent (or thought) it become exited and changes into a different state, this state is the spren.

I conceptualise this as being like the energy states of an electron around an atom. Just like an electron will drop down ito a more stable/lower energy state I also believe that a spren will, in the absence of additional intent, return to the base state it started as (which I suspect is what the spren think of as death).

This would mean that most spren are unstable unless they have a supply of intent, provided by living things in the physical realm, to keep them stable. This would explain why spren seem to follow the thin they "represent" around, it's a matter of survival.

Actually I wonder if spren have a half-life, like unstable elements. Would a population of windspren deplete by half after, say, 30 days if deprived of intent?

what do you guys think?

Edited March 16, 2017 by SnopyDogy

[Steeldancer he/him]

21 hours ago, SnopyDogy said:

I've been thinking of spren in terms of (my limited understanding of) quantum mechanics myself lately. I have a theory that all spren start of in a base, stable state I.e a shard of investiture. When it interacts with some intent (or thought) it become exited and changes into a different state, this state is the spren.

I conceptualise this as being like the energy states of an electron around an atom. Just like an electron will drop down ito a more stable/lower energy state I also believe that a spren will, in the absence of additional intent, return to the base state it started as (which I suspect is what the spren think of as death).

This would mean that most spren are unstable unless they have a supply of intent, provided by living things in the physical realm, to keep them stable. This would explain why spren seem to follow the thin they "represent" around, it's a matter of survival.

Actually I wonder if spren have a half-life, like unstable elements. Would a population of windspren deplete by half after, say, 30 days if deprived of intent?

what do you guys think?

I've just sort of thought that they represent an ideal, but are in constant flux because that ideal flame or something isn't defined by the general population. But as soon as someone observes a spren and measures it, the ideal has been defined, and the spren must follow that defined ideal. I think this is less quantum physics and more realmatic theory.