www.physicsforums.com herd effect As for the question of announc

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=277227

 

Originally Posted by Loren Booda I was thinking of a quantum measurement analog on the macroscopic scale. Take an election for instance. If I let others know of my vote in a political race, they may be influenced to consider whom to vote for, for or against my choice, and tell yet others, etc. On the large scale this process can be nonlinear, which outcomes are often unpredictable.

There's nothing fundamentally unpredictable about nonlinear systems, they are deterministic. They just aren't subject to the relation


where is the initial configuration, is a later configuration , and and are both small perturbations. Meaning a small perturbation in input can result in large changes in later output. This makes them difficult to preduct in practice because any error in inputs screws up the outputs. But they are predictable in principle.

As for the question of announcing who you intend to vote for, that is a question for game theory. If the goal is to pick a winning candidate (which seems to be the goal of many people who think elections are horse races) then it affects my strategy. If the goal is for the candidate I want to win, what you vote should be irrelevant to my vote. If the goal is to pick the best candidate, then your vote might affect my vote. But each of this is a different scenario.

Similarly, although there are logical causes involved with an economic panic, the herd or self-protective mentality sometimes snowballs from factor which, in another yet similar economic climate would be relatively benign. Also, rather than necessarily effect nonlinearly many outcomes, one can influence just a single event far removed from our choice, in time or space. Our ancient ancestor may have decided to have a child (a quantum event?), who would effect more so directly the human race, but have little effect on other solar systems besides the few photons he or she eventually emits out into space.

We have the figure of speech 'self-fulfilling prophecy' for a reason. See also Oedipus Rex. Zeus vs Cronos. The story of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha). The list goes on. The idea is common in mythology.

I don't see how you can call this a quantum measurement analog however.