Where Is Peru?

Hello my love,
Do you know where Peru is?

No really, where is it? A short while ago when Nicole and I began this blog, Nicole was sitting at her hand-built PC watching our views start to accumulate. We thought it was quite cool that the viewing was mapped, so we could determine how global the reach of our bullshit was. Expecting most to originate from the United States - due to our blog being three hours old plus the (current perception of) time being 2 AM- we were quite excited to discover we had 3 views from Peru. In the present, Peru is neck and neck with ‘Unknown Region’ both reaching a whopping 5 visits.

Midst our vaguely unfounded burst of glee we realized neither of us had any clue where the fuck Peru is. You think we would, we didn’t. Geography has always been my worst subject as I’m directionally challenged and have -professionally- diagnosed shit memory, but I have no explanation for Nicole. After confiding in google, the all-knowing internet god, I still was not satisfied. Yes, Peru may be a country located in South America … but is it? As a non-believer in absolutes, this set location of so-called Peru seemed far too reductive. So I quantum physic-ed the shit out of it. If I succeed, Peru won’t even know where the fuck Peru is. Take that Peru. 

Superposition

Like all matter, Peru is made up of atoms, which are composed of particles - who have some really wacky properties. Things get weird at the quantum level, so to help explain, I will consult a cat. Schrödinger's Cat.

Imagine placing a cat inside a closed box. Inside this box, there is a knife, or radioactive substance decaying (the rate of decay is uncertain) within a time bomb which will release lethal gas into the box once decayed. (I prefer the second) You have no way of knowing whether the cat is alive or dead without opening the box. According to quantum physics, prior to opening the box, the cat is in a superposition of being alive and dead. The cat is alive and dead. It is also neither alive nor dead. Heh. Only once the box is opened does the state of the cat become determined.

If the superposition of particles isn’t weird enough for you, get ready for wave-particle duality. Wave-particle duality is the concept in quantum mechanics that every particle or quantum entity can be described as either a particle or a wave. This phenomenon is most commonly explained through light particles, which along with being particles have wavelengths. Think the electromagnetic spectrum. If you really want to confuse your brain though, matter is a particle. Matter is also a wave. The particles that make up your table? Also waves. Every particle which makes up y o u r body is not just a particle, but also a wave. Your really so groovy dude.

Humans discovered this dope phenomenon by shooting singular electrons through some lil slits - it’s called the dual slit experiment. To start off, Imagine a wall with two slits in it. If you sent a single electron at these slits, you would expect it to go through one or the other, creating a pattern of two lines - similar to the slits- if you marked their location on the wall behind the cool wall with slits in it. That's not what happens.

This is what happens. This is a wave interference pattern. 

When a singular electron is fired, it essentially travels through both - and neither - slits and interacts with itself. Lol what? Let's go back to the cat, since these electrons have not been observed prior to passing through the slits, their position or state is in superposition. The electron is in both positions of passing through one slit or the other. Of course, if you placed a mechanical observer in front of the slits this interference wave would collapse. Since the electron would have a determined position, it would only pass through one of the slits - there would be no interaction of waves to create an interference wave pattern. (This is actually incredibly cool and means perception directly affects reality) But if not observed, the electron particle-wave passes through both of the slits, and as the wave diffracts leaving both slits (imagine dropping a pebble in a puddle) the electron wave is able to interact with itself. Creating a pattern of crests and troughs that either align or misalign - to cancel each other out or add together - creating the light and dark stripes of the interference pattern.

Where is Peru?

Step 1) Peru is composed of matter which is composed of particles
Step 2) All particles are in superposition before observation
Step 3) The position of the particles of Peru must be uncertain

Therefore, you, me, and Peru have no idea where Peru is.

(This, of course, is assuming there is no one in Peru to observe its location and collapse the wave function. As a solipsist though, I can not escape my own mind and have no way to determine whether or not the ‘people’ in Peru actually exist. There are no people in Peru. Deal with it.)

EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE

For those of you who falsely believe there are people in Peru, and of course those 5 humans (Or not humans - we don’t discriminate - mice and squirrels are always welcome. (woot double reference)) who visited our site from Peru, you should not be so certain. Heisenberg was so uncertain of Peru’s location, he created the Uncertainty Principle.

Wherever you are when you read this, imagine your position. If you're not moving or at rest, at rest relative to what? The earth is spinning on its axis, so if you are in Peru - just south of the equator - you are spinning around the earth at 1000 miles per hour. But isn’t the earth moving too? The earth orbits the sun at approximately 67,000 miles per hour. So your position on earth, and relative to the sun, is always changing. But the sun moves around the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which moves within our local group of galaxies, which moves within the Virgo Cluster, … and the universe is expanding exponentially. If you think you know where you are, you have no idea how fast you are moving. Position and momentum have shitty complementarity - you cannot observe the position of Peru with accuracy without becoming uncertain about its momentum and vice versa. If you threw a ball and tried to determine its position at any particular point in time along its path the ball would not be moving. You move over time, but at this exact second, instantaneously, not over time, you would have no momentum. But you are moving, right? So then where are y o u? Where is P E R U?

To move relative to nothing is meaningless, the concepts of speed and rest have only relative meaning. They are -absolutely- meaningless. They mean something only with respect to arbitrarily chosen artificial frames of reference.



You do not know where Peru is, absolutely.

Maybe you know where Peru is relative to earth, but what is earth relative to? Everything must be relative to something else, but at some point would you not reach n o t h i n g?



On Christmas day at 2 AM, I did not know where Peru is. Right now, I still do not know where Peru is. So I ask you, dear reader, where is Peru?



Love and Rage,

Raina