"This life of yours which you are living is not merely a piece of this entire existence, but it is in a certain sense the 'whole'; only this whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance. This, as we know, is what the Brahmins express in that sacred, mystic formula which is yet really so simple and so clear: TAT TVAM ASI, this is you. Or, again, in such words as 'I am in the east and in the west. I am below and above, I AM THIS WHOLE WORLD." - Erwin Schrödinger From his essay "My View of the World"
In 1985 Nick Herbert wrote a book called Quantum Reality - Beyond the New Physics. It was written for the layperson and presented quantum concepts in a very understandable and compelling way. This is one of the first books on this subject that I picked up and so started my exploration into the nature of reality.
Nick Herbert has a Ph.D. (Physics major, Math minor) from Stanford University and holds a B.Sc., Engineering Physics (Summa cum Laude) from Ohio State University. He developed with P. S. Jastram (OSU) a method for increasing energy resolution of gamma-ray scintillation detectors while at Ohio State University. He also was involved in missile engineering at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama (now known as NASA Space Center).
So it's safe to say he is well qualified in physics. Though Quantum Reality was written 22 years ago, I still consider it quite relevant and recommend reading it. In his book he condenses to eight different reality concepts the views of foremost quantum physicists at that time.
In this post we will take a look at the first two reality views discussed by Herbert.
#1 The Copenhagen Interpretation – Part 1 – There is no deep reality
Based on the views of Danish physicist Niels Bohr. Considered to be one of the most outrageous claims in quantum physics, the notion that there is no deep reality really means according to Bohr, that the world as we see it is real enough, it just exists on top of a world that is not real. Simply put (as if there is anything simple about understanding this statement), everyday phenomena are not created from phenomena, but out of an utterly different kind of being.
As strange as it seems, this happens to be the prevailing position of established physics. The Copenhagen interpretation gets its name from he fact that it was developed at Niels Bohr's Copenhagen Institute.
As Nick Herbert put it "Undaunted by occasional challenges by mavericks of realist persuasion, the majority of physicists swear at least nominal allegiance to Bohr's anti-realist creed. What more glaring indication of the depth of the reality crisis than the official rejection of reality itself by the bulk of the physics community?"
Bohr was none the less adamant in his renunciation of deep reality. In his own words "There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract quantum description."
Speaking about Bohr's anti-realist position Cornell physicist N. David Mermin said "We know now that the moon is demonstrably not there when nobody looks."
#2 The Copenhagen Interpretation – Part 2 – Reality is created by observation
While the physicists who side with the Copenhagen school of thought do not believe in a deep reality, they do acknowledge the existence of phenomenal reality. My house, your car, the street you live on, the trees in the forest and everything in the world we all see, feel, and touch are no doubt real - but nothing is really there when no one is looking. If your car is in your garage and no one is looking at it, then there really is no car in the garage. No observer, no observable reality. Object not observed, object not there.
Any system at the quantum level exists in a superposition of states. Only when there is an act of measurement does a certain state become manifest. Many practical physicists are not bothered by this requirement as long as the rules of quantum theory yield consistent results. It is the philosopher and pure theorist who turn out to be very un-comfortable with this position. Erwin Schrödinger himself was bothered by two aspects of this interpretation - the notion that a quantum system could exist in a superposition of states, and the requirement of an intelligent observer to "Collapse the wave function" and force a quantum system to manifest in a unique state.
Noting that observer-created reality themes are commonplace in philosophy, Nick Herbert quotes Bertrand Russell regarding his fascination with idealism while he was a student at Trinity College. "In this philosophy I found comfort for a time... There was a curious pleasure in making oneself believe that time and space are unreal, that matter is an illusion and the world really consists of nothing but mind."
More to come...
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