Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different

by Philip Ball

Quantum physics implies that the world comes from a quite different place than the conventional notion of particles becoming atoms becoming stars and planets. All that happens, surely: but the fundamental fabric from which it sprang is governed by rules that defy traditional narratives. It is another quantum cliché to imply that those rules undermine our ideas of ‘what is real’ – but this, at least, is a cliché that we might usefully revisit with fresh eyes. The physicist Leonard Susskind is not exaggerating when he says that ‘in accepting quantum mechanics, we are buying into a view of reality that is radically different from the classical view’. Note that: a different view of reality, not a different kind of physics. If different physics is ‘all’ you want, you can look (say) to Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity, in which motion and gravity slow time and bend space. That’s not easy to imagine, but I reckon you can do it. You just need to imagine time passing more slowly, distances contracting: distortions of your grid references. You can put those ideas into words. In quantum theory, words are blunt tools. We give names to things and processes, but those are just labels for concepts that cannot be properly, accurately expressed in any terms but their own. A different view of reality, then: if we’re serious about that, we’re going to need some philosophy.