Is the counterfactual definiteness possible at the level of countries?

Linkey May 20, 2024 at 05:01 1125 views 3 comments
I hope that people here have heard about the Elitzur–Vaidman bomb tester and the counterfactual definiteness:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elitzur–Vaidman_bomb_tester

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfactual_definiteness


I have a question: can this experiment be performed at the level of countries for avoiding a nuclear war?

Let’s consider, that in 2400 A.D. there is a country with a dictator Kim 8, who oppresses his people, exports some resources and controls the overbomb which can totally destroy the planet. He is loosing power because of the sanctions, and decides to use the following strategy – threatens that he will annihilate Earth if the sanctions will not be lifted. He does not want such a scenario, but he has a chance to win if the states will fulfill his demands because of fear.

What can the humanity do in this situation? They can annihilate the country of Kim firstly, but this is the violation of all international laws (the nuclear bombs can me used only in response). However, I think that theoretically, one more scenario is possible: the states can create a superposition of two Earths (two universes), in the first the apocalypses does not occur, and in the second Kim uses the overbomd. Like in the Elitzur–Vaidman bomb experiment, the information that Kim had done this in the second universe, will be accessible in the first universe, and this will give the states the right to annihilate the country of Kim.

What do you think?

Comments (3)

noAxioms May 20, 2024 at 11:42 #905472
Quoting Linkey
I hope that people here have heard about the Elitzur–Vaidman bomb tester

Having heard of it and understanding it are two very different things,.

The bombs in the referenced experiment are never in superposition of anything. They're real classical bombs, some of which are functional and some of which are duds, with the only way to tell is to look at them, except any light at all triggers the bombs that aren't duds.

The procedure to detect some good bombs does not involve putting any of the bombs into a state of superposition, something not really possible with a complex classical object, let alone an entire planet. But the bomb-detector test is something you can actually build in a lab, albeit an incredibly dark one.
Linkey May 21, 2024 at 06:03 #905691
The Game of Chicken illustrates cases where people can win through "rational irrationality":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_(game)

User image

This is an explanation of the politics of Kim Jong Un and Putin, and my idea is, that in the quantum reality the civilized world can find solutions against this.I hope my idea does not look crazy, because the EV bomb experiment is "crazy" already and the physicists must know that.
Linkey May 23, 2024 at 10:54 #906140
An example of a situation which can be studied by the game theory is aTruel:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truel


One example of this game was described in a book of Martin Gardner. Three shooters A, B, C have chosen a truel. A never misses, B hits 80% of the time, C hits 50% of the time. In such a game, C has the best chance of winning because he can shoot into the air first while A and B are shooting at each other.

My question is: is it possible to suggest some variants of this truel in which players have access to the Mach–Zehnder interferometerwith bombs, and this can change the probabilities of the outcomes. I mean something like this: player C does not shoot either A or B, but creates a superposition of these two states, and in one of the states also sends a message to B - if you don’t want me to shoot at you next time, do as I ask. I hope my idea can be understood.
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