Quantum physics does not prove that our world is an illusion, so we probably should deal with our lives
The New Thought fans are gleeful over the latest Nobel Prize-winning experiment proving that the cosmos is not locally real. They say this proves there is no reality and everything is perception. They tell me “nothing happens, “everything is in our mind,” and “we have to get over form,” and they send me cherry-picked Einstein quotes curated by psychologists, self-help gurus, and now my new favorite, The Course in Miracles, claimed to have been inner dictated by Jesus to its author. I think they missed the part where Einstein was proved wrong by this experiment, but okay, these are not scientists but people struggling to get along in an increasingly difficult society grasping for answers given by dubious characters using junk interpretations of science.
I remain skeptical when people insist quantum mechanics proves the world isn’t real because I remember from my college physics class that scientists studying quantum physics carefully separate their discipline from the rest of physics. Given the many years since college, I checked that out again, and it remains true.
Physicists with degrees in physics and teaching or experimenting at major universities will tell you that the study of quantum physics applies to particles at the quantum level and not to our larger world.
The answer to the question of how quantum physics applies to our real human-sized physical world is: we do not know. We didn’t know in 1981 when I graduated from college, and we do not know now, and we don’t have the technology or methodology to conduct experiments to prove it — yet.
However, the Nobel Prize-winning physicists referenced above recently proved that, on the particle level, the cosmos is not “locally real,” In addition to a scientific term that has a specific meaning, that has become a new buzzphrase in the guru world where they excite their believers without accurately defining what that means. I looked into it.
“Not locally real” does not mean there’s no reality at your local diner. In this recent experiment, scientists proved the universe cannot be both “local” and “real” simultaneously, but they don’t know which.
“Real” does not refer to our common, non-scientist understanding of reality but the state of a particle, and various parameters, including spin and direction. The question on the table was: is a particle’s state assigned at creation or upon measurement?
The word “local” in this term refers to whether or not entangled or related particles can affect each other if they are farther apart than what could be communicated at light speed, the fastest any information between them could travel.
The recent experiment, with all its admitted flaws and negotiated methodology, proved that a spinning particle is in a superposition state — it’s not spinning one way or another until it’s measured. Its state isn’t assigned until measured, although Schrodinger’s cat is still dead or alive before the box is opened, and that was Schrodinger’s point.
Scientists say it proved wave theory, basically that quantum mechanics is a science and not just supposition, and disproved Einstein’s hypothesis that particles’ states were set at creation, and we couldn’t know what they were due to hidden variables. They did not prove that quantum theory applies to the larger world.
In our world, this affects quantum computing, but applying these results to anything other than quantum-level particles is beyond the scope of the recent experiment, its conclusions, and prior papers, theories, and experiments relating to the original controversy. Pop cultures, philosophies, and religions are extrapolating the outcome of these experiments for fun or thought games or to sell books and stuff, but that goes beyond what scientists proved, and all of the people touting this as a breakthrough in anything other than particle science are in the soft sciences, media, self-help disciplines, not physicists.
I have no argument with philosophers and psychologists advising people to question their perceptions about any given situation — look at things from another point of view, but when they go past that and say that quantum physics proves there is no reality, they’re going beyond what the science proved. It concerns me because it’s a dangerous cultural and political tool. People I know who actively study and attempt to apply these teachings, supposedly based on hard science, believe science backs up the idea that they are pure souls temporarily delayed in this non-reality waiting to go to heaven or wherever else, and can’t control their reality, so they don’t try to improve their lives at home, at work, or in the world. They scold themselves over their concern with a non-existent reality and wait for an afterlife they believe has greater promise.
Additional Sources:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spooky-quantum-action-passes-test/
