Posted on 09/04/2017 8:13:26 AM PDT by Enlightened1
Scientists have been using quantum theory for almost a century now, but embarrassingly they still don’t know what it means. An informal poll taken at a 2011 conference on Quantum Physics and the Nature of Reality showed that there’s still no consensus on what quantum theory says about reality—the participants remained deeply divided about how the theory should be interpreted.
Some physicists just shrug and say we have to live with the fact that quantum mechanics is weird. So particles can be in two places at once, or communicate instantaneously over vast distances? Get over it. After all, the theory works fine. If you want to calculate what experiments will reveal about subatomic particles, atoms, molecules and light, then quantum mechanics succeeds brilliantly.
But some researchers want to dig deeper. They want to know why quantum mechanics has the form it does, and they are engaged in an ambitious program to find out. It is called quantum reconstruction, and it amounts to trying to rebuild the theory from scratch based on a few simple principles.
If these efforts succeed, it’s possible that all the apparent oddness and confusion of quantum mechanics will melt away, and we will finally grasp what the theory has been trying to tell us. “For me, the ultimate goal is to prove that quantum theory is the only theory where our imperfect experiences allow us to build an ideal picture of the world,” said Giulio Chiribella, a theoretical physicist at the University of Hong Kong.
(Excerpt) Read more at wired.com ...
2011 is quite dated for Physics.
BLM says quantum mechanics is RAYCISS!
Sheldon Cooper knows.
> But some researchers want to dig deeper. <
They are free to do that, as long as Quantum Theory hasn’t been declared to be Settled Science. It is forbidden to question Settled Science!
“Oddness and confusion of quantum mechanics will melt away”
Oh, those quantum mechanics running around in their overalls waving socket wrenches and demanding to be paid in jello.
“Scientists.....still don’t know what it means.”
It’s like everything is connected by strings and if you strum the string.....
Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah
Someone’s in the kitchen I know o o o
Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah
Strummin on the old banjo
Sure was a lot of fun to strum Dinah’s banjo.
It is forbidden to question Settled Science!
There is no such thing as settled science according to the scientific method. The last rule of the scientific method is to reevaluate so it is never settled.
It means you have no clue what you are looking at.
Schrodinger’s cat is dead.
> There is no such thing as settled science according to the scientific method. <
That’s exactly right. If it’s science, it’s not settled.
And if it’s settled, it’s not science.
Consider man-made Global Warming. Does that exist? I don’t know. But it has been declared “settled science”. No more debate is allowed. That’s Dark Ages stuff. I find that VERY disturbing.
quantum physics is the modern day equivalence of asking how many angels can dance on a pinhead. and makes as much sense.
I have spoken to quite a few physicists who tell me that you have to suspend disbelief in order to grasp it.
Quantum Theory says his cat is dead, and alive.
That’s like taking both sides in an argument. Very confusing.
Quantum Theory is based on an unprovable assumption.
Calling Sheldon Cooper.
I found it amazing that this article didn’t mention pilot waves, or the very interesting explanations they offer for many quantum phenomena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmC0ygr08tE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIyTZDHuarQ
The cool thing about pilot waves is they don’t involve randomness - they’re deterministic, yet exhibit statistical properties similar to QM. No more “playing dice with the universe” - it’s just that humans don’t have the technology to detect the pilot waves directly.
BTW, de Broglie hypothesized this exact mechanism early on, but the strictly probability based “Copenhagen interpretation” became the accepted theory instead. We’ll see if some clever physicists can come up with experiments that definitely show which is correct.
Except it works, makes predictions which match experiment and gives very accurate calculations that match experiment. The theory could be conceptually completely wrong but since it does what you ask a theory to do - make predictions & match experimental measurement. (Hear that Global Warmers!)
It’s hard to de-throne since for the most part since its spectacularly doing its job. However good proper scientific practice says you should keep trying! (Hard to get NSF grants for “contrary science”! I know I tried!)
Quantum Theory is based on an unprovable assumption.
...
Quantum Theory is based on experimental results. Yet it is the most precise theory we have in all the sciences. The theory is bizarre because the experimental results are bizarre. The experiments came first, then the theory.
Since when?
He doesn’t know squat - a decent actor but his TV gf is actually a genius.
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