Leave Quantum Physics Alone - pt. 2
Welcome back! Here is the second part of my rant about the mistreatment of quantum physics by the New Age movement, and this time it will be more about the metaphysics side of things. Sorry for taking so long, it's been unexpectedly difficult to keep myself from rambling and yelling at clouds. Again, there will be no math, but we will have to wade a bit more into the weeds in order to debunk the craziness. I hope it will all make sense, as much as quantum physics can.
As previously mentioned, Fritjof Capra is one of the main culprits in this whole mess. Technically, other authors had first suggested that paranormal phenomena could be explained by quantum physics, but I'm holding Capra to a higher standard because he was himself a physicist and should have known better. Oh, and also because his books were bestsellers. The fact that a physicist believed in the quantum mysticism mumbo-jumbo could make said mumbo-jumbo sound more legitimate, but to me it's just more proof that scientists are not immune to the bad kind of meowgical thinking. It takes less than we like to admit to be carried away by fantasy, and education is not always the vaccine we think it is.
So, in 1975 he published The Tao of Physics, and in there he leaned built heavily on Heisenberg's trip to India and the conversations he had there with Tagore. He claimed that Heisenberg's physics proved that everything is interconnected and that Eastern thinkers had been talking about quantum physics all along, just with different words. Oh, and he also claimed that Heisenberg was "in complete agreement" with him, although we never got to hear from Heisenberg himself.
Later historians, like Hammer, have downplayed the role that Tagore's thoughts actually played in the development of quantum theory. Yes, as I already wrote, it is true that many of the scientists involved were interested in Eastern mysticism and Schopenhauer's interpretation of it, they kept that interest separated from their scientific inquiries. As they should. Other critics pointed out that Capra's assertions rely on superficial similarities of language between quantum theory and the (probably whitewashed) concepts of Eastern philosophy. Some have even pointed out that Tagore was a poet and a modernist and heterodox thinker, and thus not a spokeperson for mainstream Hindu theology (let alone "Eastern" thought as a whole). But as far as I'm concerned, the most troubling criticism of Capra is that later discoveries and developments of quantum physics have disproved his ideas and made the connection with mysticism more and more tenuous, but Capra has ignored those developments and kept working in the outdated frame of quantum theory. In fact, in later editions of the book he has claimed the opposite, that everything is still in accordance and he had predicted it all. And that's exactly why science and religion must not be mixed together: when push comes to shove, hoomans inevitably choose religion over the cold, hard truth.
So, not only is quantum mysticism based on misunderstanding, it also relies on the seminal version of the scientific theory, the one proposed when scientists still didn't have the full picture. But of course, that hasn't stopped the gurus, who were ready to milk the crap out of the supposed endorsement of metaphysics by famous scientists, and here we really get to the core of what makes me and other physicists so pissed about it. It's not because we're dogmatic and refuse new ideas a priori. It's not because we only listen to people with the right degrees. It's because these gurus who so love quantum physics are the same ones who also love to denigrate science and call us inferior researchers at best, or enemies of society at worse. These are the same people who peddle anti-vax propaganda, who claim to heal people with eNeRGieS and that scholars of [insert discipline] are hiding and suppressing whatever Great Truth. They (the gurus) publish book after book denigrating science and sowing distrust in it, but at the same time they are more than happy to borrow its credibility whenever it suits them, when it seems like they can twist the theories in their favour. Quantum physics is just the most visible victim, the most mistreated of them all.
But why, though? Why quantum physics?
What we have mentioned so far is the spark that started it all. However, it may never have grown the way it did if quantum physics didn't offer some genuinely interesting philosophical questions, and if there wasn't a moment when scientists were seriously considering the role of human consciousness in the behaviour of particles.
Wait, what?
I've mentioned state superposition and waveform collapse in the previous pawst, so go back and read it if you don't remember what they are. Unsurprisingly, the idea that a particle is in all of its possible states until observed, and that the state it eventually collapses into is completely random, was like a bomb thrown in the building of Western science. The macroscopic world was governed by rigid, and most importantly knowable, mechanical laws, and suddenly the microscopic plane was proving anything but. This is why the physicists were drawn to Schopenhauer's philosophy, which posits that the world is chaotic and has no rhyme or reason to it. Moreover, the idea that the act of observing a particle influences its behaviour, by forcing it to "choose" a state, seemed absurd: does that mean that observing isn't a neutral activity, removed from the experiment itself? That the particle would follow a different path if it wasn't observed? That the consciousness of the experimenter can control the particle? That our consciousness in general can affect reality? Well, yes, maybe, no, and absolutely fooking not. The mistake here is the word "observing", because that implies the involvement of a living being with a consciousness. This admittedly threw off the scientists themselves (and Capra), but it turns out that consciousness isn't required at all.
If a tree falls into a forest where nobody's there, does it still make noise?
If you answered yes, well done! Quantum physics is gonna be a breeze for you. If you answered no, don't worry: I'll take your paw and walk with you.
Imagine a gun that shoots electrons forward, towards a detector. In between the two, let's put a metal sheet with a thin slit in it. There's a picture here to help you, and if you want to read more about the classic that is the double-slit experiment you can do it here. When the gun shoots, the electrons that hit the metal plate will bounce off, so the detector will only collect those that pass through the slit. That's particle behaviour, the same that you would see if you were tossing balls through a hole in the wall. But now let's cut a second slit in the metal plate, very close to the first one, and things change: suddenly, the detector sees an interference pattern, the same you would see if it was water waves going through the fissure. What happened? The second slit highlighted the wave behaviour of the eletrons, by creating the conditions in which they can interact with each other and experience interference. And no consciousness was needed for this: you didn't even need to be in the room after putting everything in place and starting the gun. We say "observation of" the particle causes its wave to collapse, but we should rather say "interaction with" the particle is the cause1. The electrons did the job all by themselves.
Also important to remember is the fact that the state our particle collapses into is random, which means that even if your consciousness was the cause, you could not choose the outcome, which ultimately means you don't control your reality by quantistic means. You can wish all you want, manifest, envision, cast spells even, but at the end of the day you also gotta roll up your sleeves and get to work. There are no shortcuts.
Today, "quantum" has become like "synergy", "natural" and "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious": a word that makes the person who said it immediately sound smarter and impressive. It's also intimidating, and making the other person feel like they don't know enough to disagree is one of the main tactics of grifters and gurus. And finally, the word "quantum" has become a get-out-of-jail card of sorts, in that it can explain anything and everything, no matter how "out there" it sounds, and if you say something is "quantum" then there's no need to investigate further. But quantum physics is, well, physics, so it does obey some laws. Most importantly, quantum physics applies to the infinitely small: atoms and the particles of which they are made. That's why it feels so alien to us, and why we never see it in action directly. It's not for us.
We don't know if the world has rhyme and reason to it, and if there is a meaning to this all, but one thing we can say for sure: the world was not created for us, tailored to our measure and needs. Some things in nature are just beyond our control, and that's ok.
Phew, we've made through another rant! I really need a cup of tea now, so let's call it a day. Next time I'll finally take a swing at the specific concepts that quantum mystics misunderstand.
and after all, if you dig deep enough, the particle needs to interact with something in order to be observed by us.↩