Quantum Mechanics from Blackbody Radiation as "Act of Despair"

Max Planck: The whole procedure was an act of despair because a theoretical interpretation (of black-body radiation) had to be found at any price, no matter how high that might be…I was ready to sacrifice any of my previous convictions about physics..For this reason, on the very first day when I formulated this law, I began to devote myself to the task of investing it with true physical meaning.

The textbook history of modern physics tells that quantum mechanics was born from Planck's proof of the universal law of blackbody radiation based on an statistics of discrete lumps of energy or energy quanta $h\nu$, where $h$ is Planck's constant and $\nu$ frequency. The textbook definition of a blackbody is a body which absorbs all, reflects none and re-emits all of incident radiation:

• A black body is an idealized physical body that absorbs all incident electromagnetic radiation, regardless of frequency or angle of incidence. (Wikipedia)
• "Blackbody radiation" or "cavity radiation" refers to an object or system which absorbs all radiation incident upon it and re-radiates energy which is characteristic of this radiating system only, not dependent upon the type of radiation which is incident upon it. (Hyperphysics)
• Theoretical surface that absorbs all radiant energy that falls on it, and radiates electromagnetic energy at all frequencies, from radio waves to gamma rays, with an intensity distribution dependent on its temperature. (Merriam-Webster)
• An ideal object that is a perfect absorber of light (hence the name since it would appear completely black if it were cold), and also a perfect emitter of light. (Astro Virginia)
• A black body is a theoretical object that absorbs 100% of the radiation that hits it. Therefore it reflects no radiation and appears perfectly black. (Egglescliff)
• A hypothetic body that completely absorbs all wavelengths of thermal radiation incident on it. (Eric Weisstein's World of Physics) 

But there is something more to a blackbody and that is a the high frequency cut-off, expressed in Wien's displacement law, of the principal form 

• $\nu < \frac{T}{\hat h}$,

where $\nu$ is frequency, $T$ temperature  and $\hat h$ a Planck constant, stating that only frequencies below the cut-off $\frac{T}{\hat h}$ are re-emitted. Absorbed frequencies above the cut-off will then be stored as internal energy in the body under increasing temperature,

Bodies which absorb all incident radiation made of different materials will have different high-frequency cut-off and an (ideal) blackbody should then be characterized as having maximal cut-off, that is smallest Planck constant $\hat h$, with the maximum taken over all real bodies. 

A cavity with graphite walls is used as a reference blackbody defined by the following properties: 

1. absorption of all incident radiation
2. maximal cut-off - smallest Planck constant $\hat h\approx 4.8\times 10^{-11}\, Ks$,     

and $\hat h =\frac{h}{k}$ is Planck's constant $h$ scaled by Boltzmann's constant $k$. 

Planck viewed the high frequency cut-off defined by the Planck constant $\hat h$ to be inexplicable in Maxwell's classical electromagnetic wave theory. In an "act of despair" to save physics from collapse in an "ultraviolet catastrophe", a role which Planck had taken on,  Planck then resorted to statistics of discrete energy quanta $h\nu$, which in the 1920s resurfaced as a basic element of quantum mechanics. 

But a high frequency cut-off in wave mechanics is not inexplicable, but is a well known phenomenon in all forms of waves including elastic, acoustic and electromagnetic waves, and can be modeled as a disspiative loss effect, where high frequency wave motion is broken down into chaotic motion stored as internal heat energy. For details, see Computational Blackbody Radiation.

It is a mystery why this was not understood by Planck. Science created in an "act of despair" runs the risk of being irrational and flat wrong, and that is if anything the trademark of quantum mechanics based on discrete quanta. 

Quantum mechanics as deterministic wave mechanics may be rational and understandable. Quantum mechanics as statistics of quanta is irrational and confusing. All the troubles and mysteries of quantum mechanics emanate from the idea of discrete quanta. Schrödinger had the solution:

• I insist upon the view that all is waves.
• If all this damned quantum jumping were really here to stay, I should be sorry I ever got involved with quantum theory.

But Schrödinger was overpowered by Bohr and Heisenberg, who have twisted the brains of modern physicists with devastating consequences...