Mermin next argues that quantum fields are not real, but are merely “useful mathematical tools.” This leads him to question the reality of Maxwell and Faraday’s classical EM field, which is, after all, the same entity as the quantized EM field but simplified by ignoring quantization. He concludes that “classical electromagnetic fields are another clever calculational device.” Most physicists, however, view classical fields as properties of space itself. This leads Mermin to the further conclusion that “space and time … are not properties of the world we live in but concepts we have invented to
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