Galt's Gulch
6

Matter is a wave, not a particle

Posted by dbhalling 9 years, 3 months ago to Science
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Excellent review of the Carver Mead's critique and solution for the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. (Not quite sure why it was in a christian magazine)
SOURCE URL: http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-07-044-b

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    Posted by Zenphamy 9 years, 3 months ago
    Dale, as we've discussed before, there's no doubt a lot more to learn and know about quantum phenomena and I'm still convinced that there's much more to understand. Mead's work might make sense, particularly as it challenges the purely mathematical approach to theoretical physics. As to the christian magazine, christian scientists, if that's not an oxymoron, have always had serious problems with QM and it's uncertainty. They feel that it challenges their beliefs and their hopes that science and god can be tied together.

    It's interesting to me to watch the interaction between the theological and the purely scientific
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      Posted by dbhalling 9 years, 3 months ago
      Yes, I also doubt that anyone has exactly the right path out of the Copenhagen wilderness, but Mead has some very interesting things to say. For instance, he divides quantum states into coherent and incoherent. He says that part of the problem is that every state of matter the physicists looked at in the early experiments were incoherent state using incoherent detectors, which is why things looked statistical.

      I also like the point about the electron cloud chamber.

      Many of the christians loved QM because free will existed in the uncertainty principle.

      I personally believe that it is very important for both physics and epistemology that the Copenhagen interpretation of QM be shown to be wrong.
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      Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 3 months ago
      "christian magazine, christian scientists, if that's not an oxymoron, have always had serious problems with QM and it's uncertainty."
      And people who like uncertainty try to use QM to explain all sorts of magic.

      I do not understand QM, and reading this makes me want to go study physics, not just a passing want but a notion to spend years building electrical test setups for physics professors in exchange for knowledge. I reject the religious aversion to uncertainty and the new age desire for The Secret. It want to know what we can really find out about the nature of matter empirically, not just models and rules of thumb.
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    Posted by ObjectiveAnalyst 9 years, 3 months ago
    Very interesting. Although only having the most rudimentary understanding of these matters, I have always been uncomfortable with the dual state theory. It has always seemed so counter-intuitive. Sometime, in the not too distant future, a definitive breakthrough/proof will occur. I suspect it will make sense and open the way for incredible new technologies.
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