Hello you smarty-pants people. I have a question, one that's rather broad, regarding Sunset Shimmer and the way quantum mechanics could play a role in her backstory.

Here's why I'm interested in all of this: It's been established by the EqG movies that Pedestria is an alternate universe because of the presence of Sci-Twi. Well what about Sunset's alternate self? What if she came across Human Sunset in Pedestria, and her universal twin died via some accident right in front of her? The question that would haunt her would be--did she set in motion a reality that she could have prevented had she not "measured" the state of her human counterpart? Did she doom her other self the moment she traversed universes?

I've been reading about various theories: the multiple worlds interpretation, pilot-wave, and of course copenhagen. On a very simple level, I kind of get what each theory is suggesting. But my eyes start to glaze when I try to find a way to use these ideas to interpret the laws that Sunset may (or may not) have subverted when she crossed worlds. I know, I know, "It's magic, stupid!" But please humor me--I'm writing a story in which Sunset finds herself concerned with the effects she may have had on the universes, and I'd like to touch on these topics with some accuracy instead of just cramming my story with sciencey terms and having nothing to really back it up with.

I was thinking MWI would be out, because the suggestion would be that Pedestria and Equestria originated from the same world. I wrote up a scene in which Sunset refutes this for the fact that magic was not present in Pedestria until she brought it from her world. If both universes were really just the same world that had evolved in different ways, then magic should have been readily present in both worlds. Pilot-wave might be the thing that absolves Sunset, because of its deterministic model--it didn't matter if Sunset was there when her alternate self died or not. It was just going to happen regardless of her observation of the event. Copenhagen's interpretation is what would keep her awake at night, because of her role as observer collapsing reality down into a single point (which then leads her to feeling guilty for having gone to Pedestria to begin with).

I'm not sure if there's any other theories that would apply here. As far as I know, it's just these three that seem to have the most supporters.

Am I just being silly? I realize these theories talk about particles not people, but I thought I could use it as a thematic element and motif regardless of its direct application to my story.

5052804 I don't think Pedestria (I didn't even know that was the name of EQG world) was in the state of superposition. I think it would function deterministically even if there was no observation from the outside.

5052883 isn't it technically in a state of superposition up until the moment that Sunset enters the world? If memory serves, even Celestia failed to enter the world herself. Then again, the sirens supposedly arrived before Sunset, but if we allow for the possibility in a collapse in temporal dimensions as much as others to travel between worlds, then isn't theoretically possible that Star Swirl's spell took longer to send the sirens then it took for Sunset to arrive via the mirror?

And Pedestria is just the name I saw Sethisto use on EQD once. It's not universal by any means. Just felt easier to use than "the human universe".

5052933 You assume that it was in a superposition before because it wasn't observed. You can have objects that aren't observed and aren't in a superposition. There is no indication that Pedestria was in superposition. Quantum-entanglement, of sorts, perhaps. But not superposition.

5052962 Okay. Quantum entanglement is still an interesting topic to explore, even thematically, but that would require some rewriting on my part.

For the lolz, can you explain superposition to me a little more, and why Pedestria doesn't qualify as being in that state? It appears my understanding of the concept was missing something.

5053055 Superposition means that the state of something is not set. It doesn't mean that it's just unknowable but undefined in the pure sense of the word.

I imagine there was life in Pedestria even before they received visitors from Equestria. If Pedestria was in a state of superposition, it would look like some kind of limbo where you have all the stuff stashed together and nothing makes sense.

In essence, if Pedestria would be in superposition, it would essentially mean that it was created the moment it received visitors from Equestria.

5052804

observer collapsing reality down into a single point (which then leads her to feeling guilty for having gone to Pedestria to begin with).

That's not what an observer is. An observer is anything that interacts with what is being measured. Be it as a chemical reaction, or an atom absorbing a photon you want to measure, or a measuring device prodding with a magnetic field. Things in 'Pedestria' are constantly being observed. They do not require someone to kick in the dimensional door and peep about. An observer does not mean a living thing with eyeballs.

Besides, Human Sunset Shimmer is not a quantum phenomenon, which is what the Copenhagen interpretation is talking about. She is a very macroscopic one. Her existence is not defined by who is measuring her. Like just about every macroscopic object, she pretty much functions only if she doesn't exist as a cloud of wildly nebulous unsettled probability. Stuff has to be in a specific space, doing a specific thing, for anything to stay coherent. Especially when you're dealing with life. Proteins would not work if a whole bunch of carbon might be a meter to the left, for example. It has to be more or less sitting right next to a bunch of hydrogen, or whatever, in a particular bond. The chemical reaction to create that protein works just fine to 'observe' the carbon atom.

By the Copenhagen Interpretation, reality is collapsing down to a single point of probability an uncountable number of times every nanosecond. It collapses billions of times with every breath Human Sunset Shimmer takes.

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5054573

Wow! Okay. Thanks for clarifying guys.

I had a whole big explanation ready, but Luminary nailed it. An observer is anything that interacts with what is being measured. Everyone and everything in Pedestria is already observing each other. Sunset's counterpart would already be observing momentum and kinetic energy of the piano as it came into contact with the atoms composing her skull.