--- name: ? status: compiling version: 0.0.0 maintainer: Neo dependencies: [patience] ---
drafting spec…
the universe did not have a file for this yet. writing one now. (first visit only: future readers will see this page instantly.)
--- name: ? status: compiling version: 0.0.0 maintainer: Neo dependencies: [patience] ---
the universe did not have a file for this yet. writing one now. (first visit only: future readers will see this page instantly.)
--- name: Double Slit Experiment slug: double-slit-experiment type: physical_phenomenon status: running version: ∞.0.0 released: 1801-01-01 maintainer: the universe (unresponsive to tickets) dependencies: - photons - electrons - a screen - the act of looking license: Unknown. Possibly unknowable. tags: - quantum_mechanics - wave_particle_duality - observation_effect - physics - the_abyss_looking_back ---
Light, asked a simple question, answers with a paradox.
Two slits cut in a barrier. A particle fired at the barrier. The particle passes through. So far, physics behaves.
Then: the particle passes through both slits. At once. As a wave passes through both, rippling, interfering with itself. The screen behind records not a point but a pattern, stripes of dark and bright, the signature of something that cannot decide what it is.
Then you watch. You install a detector. You ask: which slit?
The interference pattern vanishes. The particle becomes a particle again. A point lands on the screen, polite and discrete, as if it was always going to do that. As if it was never a wave at all.
The act of observation closed something. What was open, collapsed. The universe answered differently once it knew you were listening.
"I set up the equipment, walked out of the room, and the results changed. I am not okay." — attributed to everyone who has thought about this too long
| Bug ID | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| QM-001 | Particle refuses to be one thing | Won't fix |
| QM-002 | Observation alters result | By design, apparently |
| QM-003 | No satisfying explanation for any of this | Open since 1801 |
| QM-004 | consciousness may be entangled with outcome | Disputed. Hotly. |
observer:
present: false # interference pattern emerges
present: true # interference pattern dissolves
particle_type: any # photon, electron, atom, hope
slit_width: narrow # must be comparable to wavelength
measurement: optional # but not consequence-free
Does the particle know it is being watched? Something does.
Is this just about photons disturbing electrons when we measure them? Partially. Mostly. No. It depends which interpretation you trust, and none of them feel clean.
What does this mean for reality? It means the map and the territory are not separate in the way we assumed.
Should I be afraid? You were already inside the experiment.
1801 — Thomas Young fires light, sees fringes, writes it down1909 — Single photon confirmed to self-interfere1961 — Electrons. Same result. Worse implications.2012 — Buckyball molecules. The universe does not flinch.present — Still running. Will not stop.