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DOGMA. “Against this background, it is hardly surprising that many are attracted to the idea that quantum mechanics, or some of its successors like quantum field theory or string theory, is a universal and fundamental theory of the world.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

Fabulous strawberry from the garden. View in LinkedIn

VAST INFLUENCE. “Quantum mechanics is an immensely successful theory. Not only have all its predictions been experimentally confirmed to an unprecedented level of accuracy, allowing for a detailed understanding of the atomic and subatomic aspects of matter; the theory also lies at the heart of many of the technological advances shaping modern society – not least the transistor and therefore all of the electronic equipment that surrounds us.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

THE TATTERED HUMAN PSYCHE. “Darwin seems to me to be the Copernicus of the organic world. In the sixteenth century Copernicus put an end to the anthropocentric theory by doing away with the Ptolemaic spheres and bringing our earth down to the rank of an insignificant planet.” (du Bois-Reymond, 1882). https://lnkd.in/e2_HpJsY View in LinkedIn

PARADIGM CHANGE. “Niels Bohr’s 1913 atomic model was a revolutionary step in a development which culminated in the mid-1920s with the theory of quantum mechanics. Ever since then, physicists and philosophers have been discussing what the theory means for our understanding of the world.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first of two weekends on a consideration of some of Bohr’s ideas about quantum reality. It has been over 100 years since these ideas were introduced, and humanity is still struggling over them. “Opposites are not contradictory but complementary.” (Bohr) sums up how we humans have such deeply embedded and inflexible frames of reference that make understanding the quantum world so difficult. https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

MEASUREMENT. “Bohr’s view of quantum mechanics has traditionally been seen as opposed to quantum fundamentalism, not least because he insisted on a classical (not quantum) description of the measurement apparatus. This amounts to dissolving the measurement problem from the outset, since the apparatus and its pointer should not be thought of as being in quantum superpositions.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

TWO WORLDS. “Classical physics is causal; complete knowledge of the past allows computation of the future. Likewise, complete knowledge of the future allows precise computation of the past. Not so in quantum physics. Objects in quantum physics are neither particles nor waves; they are a strange combination of both. Given complete knowledge of the past, we can make only probabilistic predictions of the future.” https://lnkd.in/ebDJ4MfS View in LinkedIn

MICRO TO MACRO. “But if everything is quantum then superpositions at the microscopic level become “amplified” to the macro level, and there should thus, for instance, be apparatus pointers in various positions at the same time. Clearly this contradicts ordinary experience.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

INTERFERENCE PATTERNS. “For our purposes, superpositions may be taken to roughly correspond to objects being at different places at the same time. Such superpositions are essential at the microscopic level, e.g., in the explanation of the interference pattern seen in the famous double slit experiment.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn