Comments on: Quantum mechanics and Tomb Raider http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/ Updates on my research and expository papers, discussion of open problems, and other maths-related topics. By Terence Tao Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:38:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: Azzan http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-31881 Azzan Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:32:24 +0000 http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-31881 Nice example Quantum mechanics I love Tomb Raider its my best game Nice example Quantum mechanics I love Tomb Raider its my best game

]]> By: Tiempo finito y logarítmico » Quantum Mario http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-25939 Tiempo finito y logarítmico » Quantum Mario Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:32:19 +0000 http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-25939 [...] Quantum mechanics and Tomb Raider propuso originalmente un concepto interesante. Al estar en el save point de un videojuego, desde el punto de vista del personaje éste se encuentra en una superposición de estados; a partir de ahí puede ser que continúe hacia caer a un pozo o hacia terminar el juego; justo como “ese gato”. [...] [...] Quantum mechanics and Tomb Raider propuso originalmente un concepto interesante. Al estar en el save point de un videojuego, desde el punto de vista del personaje éste se encuentra en una superposición de estados; a partir de ahí puede ser que continúe hacia caer a un pozo o hacia terminar el juego; justo como “ese gato”. [...]

]]> By: JC http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-25683 JC Thu, 07 Feb 2008 07:16:24 +0000 http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-25683 This player has made a video of a bunch of runs of a version of Super Mario World, stacking them together to show the branching (and he makes reference to the Many Worlds interpretation in his writeup as well): http://msm.grumpybumpers.com/?p=20 This player has made a video of a bunch of runs of a version of Super Mario World, stacking them together to show the branching (and he makes reference to the Many Worlds interpretation in his writeup as well):

http://msm.grumpybumpers.com/?p=20

]]> By: jian http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-24783 jian Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:09:47 +0000 http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-24783 Why is Lara considered killed at the save point? Is it just a part of the feature of the game? I have never played that game myself. Or did I just miss something? Can someone tell me? Thank you. Why is Lara considered killed at the save point? Is it just a part of the feature of the game? I have never played that game myself. Or did I just miss something? Can someone tell me?

Thank you.

]]> By: blacksundae » Blog Archive » Quantum mechanics and Tomb Raider http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-24741 blacksundae » Blog Archive » Quantum mechanics and Tomb Raider Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:13:17 +0000 http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-24741 [...] Terence Tao: Imagine first that Lara is about to navigate a tricky rolling boulder puzzle, when she hears a distant rumbling sound - the sound of her player saving her game to disk. From the perspective of the player, what happens next is the following: Lara navigates the boulder puzzle but fails, being killed in the process; then the player restores the game from the save point and then Lara successfully makes it through the boulder puzzle. [...] [...] Terence Tao: Imagine first that Lara is about to navigate a tricky rolling boulder puzzle, when she hears a distant rumbling sound - the sound of her player saving her game to disk. From the perspective of the player, what happens next is the following: Lara navigates the boulder puzzle but fails, being killed in the process; then the player restores the game from the save point and then Lara successfully makes it through the boulder puzzle. [...]

]]> By: fz http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-20176 fz Thu, 13 Dec 2007 09:47:45 +0000 http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-20176 Impressing post! How did you come to explain QM by TR like this, Tao? Impressing post! How did you come to explain QM by TR like this, Tao?

]]> By: Jonathan Vos Post http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-13989 Jonathan Vos Post Thu, 08 Nov 2007 22:32:03 +0000 http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-13989 Before role playing games and computer games were a major art form, this notion (survival via seeing corpses of earlier instantiations of yourself) was explored in prose. Author Algis Budrys Country United States Language English Genre(s) Science fiction novel Publisher Gold Medal Books Publication date 1960 Media type Print (Paperback) Pages 176 pp "Rogue Moon is largely about the discovery and investigation of a large alien artifact found on the surface of the Moon. The object eventually kills its explorers in various ways, but their deaths slowly reveal the funhouse-like course humans must take in moving through it.... [characters] weave their way through a series of bizarre landscapes containing death traps. The forms these take, and the strange actions necessary to avoid them, are similar to those found in a modern video game. Emerging from the other side, they face the final hurdle. Hawks tells Barker that they cannot return. The equipment on the Moon is too crude to transmit a man back safely, and even if it were possible, there are already identical people living their lives. All the men working on the Moon are duplicates, mostly Navy men, all volunteers..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_Moon I've had the pleasure of discussing this at length several times with Algis "AJ" Budrys, one of the leading author, editor, critics of Science Fiction. Before role playing games and computer games were a major art form, this notion (survival via seeing corpses of earlier instantiations of yourself) was explored in prose.

Author Algis Budrys
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Science fiction novel
Publisher Gold Medal Books
Publication date 1960
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 176 pp

“Rogue Moon is largely about the discovery and investigation of a large alien artifact found on the surface of the Moon. The object eventually kills its explorers in various ways, but their deaths slowly reveal the funhouse-like course humans must take in moving through it…. [characters] weave their way through a series of bizarre landscapes containing death traps. The forms these take, and the strange actions necessary to avoid them, are similar to those found in a modern video game. Emerging from the other side, they face the final hurdle. Hawks tells Barker that they cannot return. The equipment on the Moon is too crude to transmit a man back safely, and even if it were possible, there are already identical people living their lives. All the men working on the Moon are duplicates, mostly Navy men, all volunteers…”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_Moon

I’ve had the pleasure of discussing this at length several times with Algis “AJ” Budrys, one of the leading author, editor, critics of Science Fiction.

]]> By: Terence Tao http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-13960 Terence Tao Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:02:29 +0000 http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-13960 Dear Nacho, In the variant of Tomb Raider that I am using as a thought experiment here, Lara has advanced AI capability, to the point where the player does not actually need to manipulate her actions (the player's role, in fact, is largely limited to observing, saving, and restoring the game). This AI does not carry over any knowledge from previous lives, but still feels their presence due to the corpse mechanic, which is the analogue of quantum interference effects for this discussion. Lara survives the fifth attempt at the deadly trap not because of knowledge of the four failed attempts, but because of the presence of the four corpses which provides enough "constructive interference" to successfully survive the trap. The situation is somewhat analogous to how an electron in an atom can only exist in certain orbital shells, in which the net effect of quantum interference is constructive rather than destructive. Dear Nacho,

In the variant of Tomb Raider that I am using as a thought experiment here, Lara has advanced AI capability, to the point where the player does not actually need to manipulate her actions (the player’s role, in fact, is largely limited to observing, saving, and restoring the game). This AI does not carry over any knowledge from previous lives, but still feels their presence due to the corpse mechanic, which is the analogue of quantum interference effects for this discussion. Lara survives the fifth attempt at the deadly trap not because of knowledge of the four failed attempts, but because of the presence of the four corpses which provides enough “constructive interference” to successfully survive the trap. The situation is somewhat analogous to how an electron in an atom can only exist in certain orbital shells, in which the net effect of quantum interference is constructive rather than destructive.

]]> By: Nacho http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-13915 Nacho Thu, 08 Nov 2007 03:06:12 +0000 http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-13915 I don't think you can make the analogy, because, in the case of the game (Tomb Raider) is not as simple as to say "if she died four times and the fifth time around she got out alive", because in the case of a game where the character is manipulated by a higher being (the player), the player is aware of all the traps and deadly alternatives. Lara Number Five doesen't make alive with the same level of awareness than Lara Number One, because she know knows 4 ways she could die. I don’t think you can make the analogy, because, in the case of the game (Tomb Raider) is not as simple as to say “if she died four times and the fifth time around she got out alive”, because in the case of a game where the character is manipulated by a higher being (the player), the player is aware of all the traps and deadly alternatives.
Lara Number Five doesen’t make alive with the same level of awareness than Lara Number One, because she know knows 4 ways she could die.

]]> By: Jonathan Vos Post http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-8351 Jonathan Vos Post Sat, 01 Sep 2007 19:15:26 +0000 http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/quantum-mechanics-and-tomb-raider/#comment-8351 What, if anything, can we conclude from the Tomb Raider parable to support, refute, or design experiments to test "from within" the notion that we probably exist in a simulation run by dilute (circa 1 light years between particles) electron-positron ambiplasma beings 10^100 years from now, after all matter has tunneled into black holes, which have all Hawking-evaporated? I discussed this at length, with citations to Freeman Dyson and others, in: "Human Destiny and the End of Time" [Quantum, No.39, Winter 1991/1992, Thrust Publications, 8217 Langport Terrace, Gaithersburg, MD 20877; ISSN 0198-6686 Prof. Greg Benford quoted heavily from this in his Galactic Core novels. Charles Stross is very pleased to announce the release on the web — in honor of International pixel-stained technopeasant day — of MISSILE GAP, which is shortlisted for the Locus readers' award for best novella this year. It deals with the Simulation issue in a very clever and well-plotted way: http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring2007/fiction-missile-gap-by-charles-stross/ see also discussion of it on his bloig here: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/04/missile_gap.html#comments Years later, as I mentioned on some other threads such as those of Scott Aaronson, Nick Bostrom (now at Oxford) rediscovered the concept and got great PR about it, including the front page of a recent New York Times Science section, albeit he is less careful in his citations than is typical in the Mathematics or Physics community. What, if anything, can we conclude from the Tomb Raider parable to support, refute, or design experiments to test “from within” the notion that we probably exist in a simulation run by dilute (circa 1 light years between particles) electron-positron ambiplasma beings 10^100 years from now, after all matter has tunneled into black holes, which have all Hawking-evaporated? I discussed this at length, with citations to Freeman Dyson and others, in:

“Human Destiny and the End of Time” [Quantum, No.39, Winter 1991/1992, Thrust Publications, 8217 Langport Terrace, Gaithersburg, MD 20877; ISSN 0198-6686

Prof. Greg Benford quoted heavily from this in his Galactic Core novels. Charles Stross is very pleased to announce the release on the web — in honor of International pixel-stained technopeasant day — of MISSILE GAP, which is shortlisted for the Locus readers’ award for best novella this year. It deals with the Simulation issue in a very clever and well-plotted way: http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring2007/fiction-missile-gap-by-charles-stross/ see also discussion of it on his bloig here: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/04/missile_gap.html#comments

Years later, as I mentioned on some other threads such as those of Scott Aaronson, Nick Bostrom (now at Oxford) rediscovered the concept and got great PR about it, including the front page of a recent New York Times Science section, albeit he is less careful in his citations than is typical in the Mathematics or Physics community.

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