Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Tuesday, February 24th, 2015

The Reality of Quantum Weirdness

Author:     EDWARD FRENKEL
Source:     The New York Times
Publication Date:     FEB. 20, 2015
 Link: The Reality of Quantum Weirdness
Stephan:   Yet another breakthrough is taking form in physics; this is an amazing time. Here is one of the best general audience essays on the quantum world I have read. And I also find it notable that a respected major university academic, would feel comfortable writing, "I suggest that we regard the paradoxes of quantum physics as a metaphor for the unknown infinite possibilities of our own existence. This is poignantly and elegantly expressed in the Vedas: “As is the atom, so is the universe; as is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm; as is the human body, so is the cosmic body; as is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind.” And that the country's most establishment newspaper would prominently publish it. Not that it is unique, but it is a prominent datapoint in an important trend. The paradigm is changing.
Credit: Olimpia Zagnoli

Credit: Olimpia Zagnoli

In Akira Kurosawa’s film “Rashomon,” a samurai has been murdered, but it’s not clear why or by whom. Various characters involved tell their versions of the events, but their accounts contradict one another. You can’t help wondering: Which story is true?

But the film also makes you consider a deeper question: Is there a true story, or is our belief in a definite, objective, observer-independent reality an illusion?

This very question, brought into sharper, scientific focus, has long been the subject of debate in quantum physics. Is there a fixed reality apart from our various observations of it? Or is reality nothing more than a kaleidoscope of infinite possibilities?

This month, a paper published online in the journal Nature Physics presents experimental research that supports the latter scenario — that there is a “Rashomon effect” not just in our descriptions of nature, but in nature itself.

Over the past hundred years, numerous […]

Read the Full Article