I loved this episode, it was beautifully written, but...

[ramparts]

...can the Fringe writers please promise they will never, ever use the phrase "emotional quantum entanglement" again, ever? :p I had to pause the show for a couple of minutes until the laughter subsided. Fringe has never exactly been scientifically accurate but at least they usually stay somewhere within the realm of vague plausibility. But that line was just a bit too much.

But then maybe this just is my [not so] inner physics major coming out.

(EDIT: to their credit, they did save some face with the explanation outside the apartment building during the amber scene, which brought them back to that realm of vague plausibility.)

[Arco]

ramparts--

You don't believe that quantum mechanics are based on "feelings"? (heh)

[Rekka]

There is a thread where you can post what you liked and disliked about the episode. You don't need to start a new thread to discuss it. :happy15:

[tricked]

I hear ya .... that phrase made me cringe. It would be like saying, "what we have here is a classic consequence of the Heisenberg Uncertainy Love Principle" lol :)

Now, that having been said .... I've been a strong propenent of the "emotions in Fringe" theories. I actually love the idea that Fringe is trying to convey that the emotions people experience and feel have impacts beyond their own understanding ... even to the degree that perhaps a person's emotional state can hinder or expand their "natural abilities". Cortexiphan is a prime example. The Inner Child being an empath (and not psychic) is another. So if two universes are entangled ... or rather, certain people in those universes are entangled ... it could stand to reason (in a TV-physics sorta way) that emotional connections could breach barriers, if a person were "open" to that.

In fact, the more you look through Fringe ... the more you see trails of just that concept. Take the Equation for example ... how did it enter the minds of people seemingly from nowhere? I'm assuming it came from an alternate universe after those individuals were succeptible to it via brain trauma, or whatever. And their feelings and emotions made it more or less possible for them to access that information.

But yeah ... the term itself could have been substituted made me do a double take. I think I even said outloud, "you have got to be kidding me" lol

[ramparts]

I think what really got me about it was how matter-of-factly Walter said it. "Ah, yes, of course, emotional quantum entanglement!" Let's face it, if I chimed in with that at my quantum field theory lecture tomorrow, I would be summarily shot :P

But I agree with you, tricked, that it can make some sense in the context of the show. Fringe is, as I've mentioned, only tenuously connected to real physics, and one of its chosen points of departure is in its emphasis on the human aspect - Cortexiphan will make people cross between universes, strong emotions will affect physics in a significant way, etc. Things that wouldn't fly in real physics, but are necessary for the story and so I don't complain. In that context, what they did with the emotional connection between universes made some sense. But man was that line cringe-worthy! lol

[tricked]

I think what really got me about it was how matter-of-factly Walter said it. "Ah, yes, of course, emotional quantum entanglement!" Let's face it, if I chimed in with that at my quantum field theory lecture tomorrow, I would be summarily shot :P

But I agree with you, tricked, that it can make some sense in the context of the show. Fringe is, as I've mentioned, only tenuously connected to real physics, and one of its chosen points of departure is in its emphasis on the human aspect - Cortexiphan will make people cross between universes, strong emotions will affect physics in a significant way, etc. Things that wouldn't fly in real physics, but are necessary for the story and so I don't complain. In that context, what they did with the emotional connection between universes made some sense. But man was that line cringe-worthy! lol Actually I'd love to see you chime in with that, so long as you're video taping the class response and will post it on youtube lol :happy15:

You know I think another reason it causes 'the cringe' ... is because people throw the word "quantum" around now as though it were a magical word that links the unknown to the known. When Walter says things like ... "well it's obvious. Apply Occam's Razor and the answer is quite clear. The boy is a psychic," it actually doesn't sound that bad. Because 'psychic' iitself is a well known term within the context of the paranormal. But if he had said, "the boy is a quantum empath" or something ... I would easily spit my cherrios out all over the TV lol. It's just a word that snake oil salesman toss onto things nowadays like "clinically proven" almost :).

In all seriousness though, Fringe tries to harness the power of the mind I believe, and there are many who would like to see a "quantum mind" theory become viable. I know I would :). The mind, if you think about it (no pun intended), skips through recalled moments in time the way an Observer might physically. It is capable of imagining things within a "bubble" which are not directly linked to the "outer" reality, considering probabilities in advance, trying to anticipate and predict a future and link together a past. However the problem with a quantum mind theory, IIRC, always boils down to decoherence. The particles involved in neuronal data transfer and communication simply decohere before they have a chance to "flex their superposition potential" as it were lol :)

Now there is a bastardized phrase I dare you to toss out at your lecture lol :)