[izietto]

> "I'm going to the store, do you want the same hot dogs we have in the fridge?" "That doesn't make sense, the store can't have the same hot dogs we have in the fridge"

Yeah but hot dogs belong to classical mechanics, while photons to quantum mechanics, and in quantum mechanics you can actually have the same hot dogs in different places, until you observe them

[zamadatix]

That a photon can be in superposition is even a better example than my hot dog example. Nobody is impressed if you can find a corner case interpretation that makes the question sound dumb they are impressed if you can try to figure out what the person really wanted to know and answer it to the best of current understanding.

In the hotdog example the point is the person is actually trying to figure out if you want them to buy you more hotdogs not whether or not the exact same hotdogs can be found at the store and fridge at the same time. In this actual discussion about the photon it's not about whether or not the photon actually carries an ID card with it it's about what actual interactions are happening to photons when the light is reflected or refracted in different ways.

Sometimes what a person is trying to figure out may not line up with how things actually work, in fact take any science and add 100 years of knowledge and pretty much all discussions are this way. That does not mean it was nonsensical to talk about it just means the details are more exact and complicated than the asker knew how to phrase (and again, it's always like more exact and complicated than any of us know as we don't know everything there is to know about the universe).

[dandelany]

The point is, if A) photons carry no individual identity, and B) the interaction happens instantaneously, then there is no meaningful difference between saying "the photon bounced off like a ball" and "the photon was absorbed and a new one was instantly re-emitted". It's literally a distinction without a difference.

As humans living in the classical world, we hear that and think "oh, that just means we don't know what's really going on, it either bounces or re-emits, it just looks the same to us." But no - reality is just an interaction of quantum fields and we're putting these human stories on top of it. It's like debating whether or not submarines swim.

[zamadatix]

I'll try again in another way and if this doesn't work I may need to come back to trying to communicate what I mean.

When you encounter an XY problem question/statement only stating "this doesn't make any sense. Computers are very complicated and don't work like that in the first place" is useless to everyone except maybe a comment or that wants to boost their ego. Taking the XY question, explaining why it's wrong, and trying to explain how things actually work at a deeper level is helpful. I think your comment about them being field interactions and needing to think about them that way is a good start on that kind of answer rather than the ones above.

[izietto]

I understand that my previous comment lacks of explanation, but I'm not a native English speaker so it's really hard for me to dig into details. I beg your pardon

[MrPatan]

There is no classical mechanics, only quantum mechanics. Or are you suggesting it's an optimization of the simulation or something?

[izietto]

What do you mean there is no classical mechanics? I was referring to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_mechanics