‘The Coyote Problem’
I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.
— Richard Feynman, The Character of Physical Law (1967, p.129).
Six decades later, Feynman’s claim arguably still stands (and remember, he won the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum electrodynamics, including inventing those squiggly diagrams that everyone uses now; so, if he doesn’t understand it…). Despite a century of unprecedented empirical success, the interpretation of quantum mechanics still remains very contested. In general, it seems undertaking any attempt to try to actually make sense of it is “considered barely respectable at all, if not actively disparaged” (Carroll 2019, p.4). Multiple interpretations coexist—Copenhagen, Bohmian, Many Worlds, Objective Collapse, Quantum Bayesian and so forth, at least a dozen or so—each with committed proponents and unresolved difficulties. No consensus view has emerged. Quantum theory has taken on an almost mystical reputation, much of which is, frankly, arrant nonsense (Bricmont 2017).
Continue reading “Reverse-Engineering Quantum Mechanics, I.”
