fredag 18 oktober 2013

Quantum Contradictions 22: The Scandal

N G van Kampen identifies The Scandal of Quantum Mechanics to be:
  • The article Would Bohr be born if Bohm were born before Born? by N Nikolić with its catchy title is a reminder of the scandalous fact that eighty years after the development of quantum mechanics the literature is still swamped by voluminous discussions about what is called its “interpretation".
  • The scandal is that there are still many articles, discussions, and textbooks, which advertise various interpretations and philosophical profundities.
Van Kampen finds discussions about the interpretation of quantum mechanics scandalous because
  • Actually quantum mechanics provides a complete and adequate description of the observed physical phenomena on the atomic scale. What else can one wish? 
  • It is true that the connection with gravity is still a problem, but that is outside this discussion.
  • The difficulty is that the authors are unable to adjust their way of thinking—and speaking—to the fact that phenomena on the microscopic scale look different from what we are accustomed to in ordinary life
  • That two electrons far apart may be entangled seems strange to someone who still thinks of electrons as individual particles rather than as manifestations of a wave function.
  • Even now many physicists have not yet learned that they should adjust their ideas to the observed reality rather than the other way round.
Van Kampen argues from a false premise or non sequitur logical fallacy (complete and adequate description of observed reality), where the real scandal that quantum mechanics is still not understood eighty years after its development, is covered up by the non-scandal that people are still seeking to understand what is not understood.  

Van Kampen twists the real effect (the discussion) of the real cause (the scandal that QM is not understood) into the cause of an invented scandal (the scandal of still discussing) based on a false premise.

Van Kampen argues as if quantum mechanics is adjusted to observed reality, when the truth is the opposite, that quantum mechanics dictates what observed reality can be.

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