The Quantum Mess: Part One

Are observers really necessary in order for reality to have reality? Is the realm of the quantum really spooky? Is causality doomed? Welcome to the world of the quantum mess!

THE QUANTUM MESS: Quantum physics is a total mess, not because it doesn’t represent at least a part of reality because it has been experimentally verified to incredible degrees of precision and no experiment has disproved any of it; not because the quantum is a fundamental part of and behind much of our established technology; but because nobody really understands what it all really means. What does quantum physics actually tell us? The science of the quantum is rock solid – it’s the philosophy underlying it that’s the mess. The comprehension, the meaning behind quantum physics is difficult, not just for the public but for professionals as well. From discontinuities and uncertainties and super-positions of all possible states, to entanglement and all things left to chance and probability, and where a cat can be both dead and alive at the same time and universes split and duplicate at the drop of a hat, where the elementary bits and pieces of the micro exhibit both wave and particle properties (though at least not at the same time), and last, but certainly not least, the absolutely essential role of the observer and the observer’s measurement in all of this quantum mess.

The philosophy and meaning and reality behind quantum (the micro) physics is diametrically in contrast to that of classical (the macro) physics, yet classical physics (the physics of Galileo and Newton that we were all taught in high school) must ultimately be derived from micro physics a.k.a. quantum physics.

Science is often more about what happens and how it happens rather than why it happens just that way. Many physicists just get on with their experiments, get results, but don’t worry too much about any ultimate meanings – why they got the results they did. Fortunately, some scientists are deeper thinkers than others and do ponder – in this case, our quantum mess.   

THE QUANTUM MESS - OUR QUANTUM UNIVERSE: The Universe at large may seem smooth and continuous but it’s anything but on the micro-scale. In fact, I’d suggest the Universe is akin to being constructed of Lego blocks of different colours (each reflecting basic realities like time, mass, energy, length, etc.) In other words, the entire Universe, all the bits and pieces, are really indivisible bits and pieces. That is, quantum physics underlies all of cosmology. Now Lisa Randall (Professor of Physics, Harvard University), defines ‘Quantum’ as “A discrete unbreakable unit of a measurable quantity; the smallest unit of that quantity”.  For example, you can have one electron, or two electrons, but not one and a half electrons. An electron can orbit an atom in this orbit, or in that orbit, but not one in-between. The electron can jump from one orbit to another and absorb or give off energy, but in discrete indivisible units, such that you can have one fundamental bit of energy (or the particle responsible for that energy – a photon in the case of electromagnetism; a graviton in the case of gravity), or two bits, but again, not one and a half bits. There is such a thing as the shortest unit of length possible (hence area and volume), called the Planck length as well as the shortest most fundamental unit of time called Planck-Wheeler time. So, all these various quantum Lego blocks ultimately make up life, the Universe and everything. On the macro-scale these blocks aren’t noticeable. But when dealing with cosmological issues that involve small spaces, or large densities or tiny time frames or other physical extremes, then one needs to abandon ‘smooth and continuous’ for quantum’s Lego blocks.  

THE QUANTUM MESS - CAUSALITY: Either causality operates all the time, in all cases, at all levels, or it doesn’t. It’s that issue that’s behind Einstein’s famous statement that ‘God doesn’t throw dice’ (which prompted others to tell Einstein to quit telling God what to do)! Einstein believed that causality was 100%. That’s classical physics. Opponents suggested that causality was nothing more than statistical probability and chance – that’s quantum physics.

If causality is not 100% dependable at the most elementary of levels then that implies that the bits and pieces at that level have some sort of free will! Can an electron or photon have free will? Can they do whatever they damn well please? If so, then moving on up the chain from micro to macro, that means that you (as a macro) must have free will.

If causality is 100% dependable at the most fundamental levels then electrons and photons, etc. do not have free will. Electrons and photons, etc. can not do whatever they damn well please. So, moving right up the chain from micro to macro, that means that you (as a macro) don’t have free will!

Light (photons), or electrons, or any other elementary particle, whether exhibiting wave or particle properties, are still behaving in a predictable (causality) manner. Turn on a laser beam – a stream of photons – the beam doesn’t do a loop-de-loop! Sprinkle iron filings over a magnet – the lines of force now visible aren’t going to spell out your name! Gold nuclei do not spontaneously decay since gold isn’t radioactive. The Sun’s spectrum – spectral lines that identify what the Sun’s chemical composition is – all caused when electrons jump from one energy state to another, don’t shift positions or tell you the Sun is made or 24 caret diamonds (or gold for that matter). The Sun’s spectrum reveals hydrogen and helium and minor constituents each and every time.

In general, probabilities = outcomes = effects.

Mechanisms = causes = previous effects.

Maybe one can have a lot of mutually exclusive mechanisms.

What decides which mechanism?

That’s dependent on what went before (a previous cause).

Let’s start with a happening - an event.

An event, or mechanism causing an event, is both a cause of a future effect, but equally that same event or mechanism is also an effect of a previous cause.

In other words, take the case where A causes B, and B causes C. B is both the effect of A and the cause of C.

The event in question is to pick a card, any card at random, from a well shuffled deck (say a deck that’s been used for years in weekly poker games). Say the card was an Ace of Diamonds and it was the 10^th card from the top.

In a landscape of equal possibilities, there are lots of ways that a deck of cards can be shuffled to have that specific card in that specific location in the deck. However, you didn’t pick from that landscape of equal possibilities, you picked from one possibility. Only on possibility out of how many possibilities was realised and presented to you.

What decided that that particular shuffled mechanism was the shuffled mechanism out of a multitude of shuffled mechanisms? Whatever it was, it was something dependent of what went on before. The specific shuffling was an event, or an effect, of a previous cause.

So a previous cause (a shuffling), gave rise to one specific event (that particular shuffled deck), which resulted in one card being picked from a specific location.

However, within that specific shuffled deck lays another landscape of possibilities. All possible 52 cards can be in all possible 52 positions. All possibilities are equal; only one will be realised.

A cause (a shuffling) gave rise to an effect (one specific shuffled outcome) which in turn was the ultimate cause of another effect (picking the Ace of Diamonds from the 10^th card down from the top).

The central question, was selecting the Ace of Diamonds a certainty or a probability? - Destiny or chance? - Causality or randomness? - Did God throw dice, or didn’t He?

To be continued…