It is interesting to watch my original post with a one liner on
Schrodinger cat analogy spawned a thread with such a lively
discussion/debate. I hereby suggest that in keeping with the
original theme of the discussion the thread title be changed to
Quantum Mystery. It is baffling how the original theme of the discussion
which was the mystery of Quantum Mechanics got sidetracked into a
debate on established freshman physics concepts which should not
truly be an issue for debate. Its like debating whether earth is
flat or round. Sounding Rumsfeldesque again I might say that there
are known knowns, unknown knowns and known unknowns in physics.
Debates in physics are meanngful in the known unknowns. The real
debate in Quantum mechanics where even the Nobel Laureates differ
and often scratch their heads is about the so called nonlocal
aspects of Quantum Mechanics. Einstein called it spooky and
refused to accept non-locality as a given like Bohr did. Feynman
once quipped that whoever claims that he/ she understands Quantum
Mechanics completely doesn't understand Quantum Mechanics. I
hereby claim to understand Quantum mechanics completely :) Anyway
joke aside, the simple meaning of non-locality in Quantum
Mehanics is that the laws of Quantum Mechaics imply that a
measurement of certain properies of a particle can remotely
influence the measurement of the corresponding property of
another particle. This is essentially not any different from alleged
psychic communication between two humans widely separated.
The debate b/w physicists is(rather was) whether this non-local
behaviour of particles is due to some hidden variables that might
be at work in determing the measuremnts of both the particle
properties in each instance or whether there is no such hidden
variables and that non-locality is a fact of nature needing no
explanation. Einstein was in the former camp, as accepting the
latter stand for him was to accept sort of a spooky mystical
communication. After the crucial and landmark experiment of Alan
Aspect and others in 1981 which conclusively proved that there
are no hidden variables that debate also is dead now. Spookiness
is an established fact of nature!. If only Einstein lived to face that
unsavory truth ! Later physicists theorized a parallel world scenario
that helped to explain this non-locality and thus saved physics
(Quantum mechanics) from being forced to accept the spooky
nonlocality. Now the debate is whether parallel universe do exist
or not. Oxford Pysicist David Deutcshe is a strong advocate of
parallel universe as are many leading physicists. Until a final
Theory of Everything is discovered and formulated this mystery
of the origin of non-locality in Quantum Mechaics will be subject
of metaphysical debate. A lot of new age mystics (read quacks)
and postmodernists have exploited this mystery of non- locality
in Quantum mechaniocs (without understanding its technical subtlity)
to claim that this vindicate a cosmic connection between everything
in the universe. All are connected !
- Aparthib
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