Talk:Quarantine (Egan novel)

The Bubble permits no light to enter the solar system

I've been thinking about this. In the novel, Egan states that the bubble does let through 'background radiation', as a concession perhaps to the second law of thermodynamics causing the internals of the bubble to freeze. Light is merely a form of radiation that falls into the spectrum we can observe with our biological optical equipment. Many of the interesting things we have detected outside of the galaxy have been detected using radiation from other spectra using artificial equipment.

I think that (within the constraints of the interpretation of QM in the novel) detecting an object outside the solar system, even using artificial equipment and radiation we cannot detect naturally, would fix it's position and collapse the states that contradict with that information, just as observing the light from a star with the naked eye would. Thus, the bubble must exclude any information from any body outside the solar system in any of the (remaining) possible eigenstates that define the position.

Now since we don't really understand background radiation (in lieu of the horizon problem) I am descending into pure, unadulterated speculation. Assuming that BG radiation is generated by some form of object or objects that we do not understand, but may understand one day, then the BG radiation could allow us to collapse eigenstates on those objects as above. Therefore, the bubble must do one of two things

artificially generate background radiation (rather than let it pass-through as the novel states)
the bubble is imperfect- humanity could gain an understanding of the objects that emitt the BG radiation and collapse their states accordingly

Regarding point two: maybe this is related to the bubble-makers intentions for humanity to one day understand the bubble, why it's there, etc... and gaining control over the observer's eigenstate collapsing is a prerequisite for understanding the BG radiation?

Jon Dowland 13:50, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)