h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What about a kind of quantum mechanics-esque type of view that the glass is both half full and empty at the same time? That's my view...

If you know where the glass is you can't know it's state though!

turvy - a Schrodinger's cat.

True, though...but when posed with the question we don't really have a real glass, however, unless someone pours water into a glass and then asks...

Maybe you could try and prove that the problematic moron asking the question doesn't exist...

So you think it's a question of is it +0 or -0 ?

Nooooooo!...........


It's more a question of observer effect.

If the drinker is in a sealed container with two glasses - one half full and one half empty - and is about to take a drink, then the external observer event is deteministic in that it forces the infinity of probabilities to take but one path.

......anyone thirsty?


turvy

To quote turvy:

If you know where the glass is you can't know it's state though!

Maybe that's why people can't find their drinks! Sure, you may say that someone else took it, prehaps the barman. But when you know it's only got a sip left, at most, to have quantum mechanics step in… Well, it makes sense… Right?

To quote you again, turvy:

If the drinker is in a sealed container with two glasses - one half full and one half empty - and is about to take a drink, then the external observer event is deteministic in that it forces the infinity of probabilities to take but one path.

…How many glasses did you make full-empty to think that up? IT'S RIDICULOUS! For starters, you need to pour these drinks. How do you NOT observe the ammount poured? What are the chances you fill a glass halfway without looking? Also, you're assuming the contents of both glasses is the same. What if it isn't? What if you have a half-full glass of water and a half-empty glass of, say, cool, refreshing beer. Then you're just observing common sense. You can't know what's in those glasses, because that's observing, and that screws up the experiment! And infinity of probabilities? Glass 1 or glass 2? Not much of an infinity…

P.S.: Where it goes … I meant to put ... Sorry about that.

Whoever mentioned sense...leave the room immediately

turvy

Ah, but if there is no sense, then there is no sense in anyone leaving. So I'm not going to.

I'm beginning to feel a bit entangled...

turvyyvurt

...Ooops


turvyyvrut

Do you need a pair of scissors? Actually, I was thinking about combining the half full/half empty problem with The Infamous Schrodinger's Cat (I believe you'll agree it deserves the capital letters. I also believe that no cat should be forced to undergo such treatment. There's a long list of people I don't like much, however.... Bwah ha, and a HA! on top of that. Death-life superposition is too good for them... Anyway, there was a point somewhere... Ah!).
Suppose you take the cat and the box, chuck the all the rest (Radioactive atom, Geiger counter, poison dispencer), remove the cat, put in one of the people on the list, and two glasses at 50% capacity. One is poisoned. The glasses are mixed around. The person cannot possibly know which glass is poisoned. He is forced to choose on of the glasses (Maybe he's poisoned, and the other glass (The non-poisoned one) contains the antidote. I don't really care. As long as he suffers. Don't know why it's a he, exactly. Women don't bother with me, I suppose. Anyway.). Before he drinks, he writes on the back of an envelope (I don't know how it got there. But whenever there is drinking, there's the back of an envelope to write stuff down on. It's probably another quantum phenomenon, which could get rid of that "Snail Mail" comment. And increase the number of drinking establishments, which is no bad thing. Anyway.) if he thinks one of the glasses is half full or half empty (Could be the glass he drank from or the other one, you can't tell.).
Now not only is he in a life/death superposition, what's written on the back of the envelope is in a half-full/half-empty superposition and both glasses are in drunk/not drunk superpositions. While all this is going on, you can pretend you're Blofeld and be stroking the cat. And laughing. Moron. "Let's have a friendly drink", you said. AND HE FELL FOR IT! BWAH HA, and a HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! on top. Then you open the box and shoot him.