torsdag 22 december 2022

Tim Maudlin on What Quantum Theory Tells about The World

In the above interview Tim Maudlin as expert on the Philosophy of Physics reveals the following truths about Quantum Theory:  

  • In Quantum Theory if you ask what that theory is telling me about the world, the physicists don't have a clue. 
  • That theory is not on a solid conceptual foundation. It is much more the case that from the philosophical side you are trying to understand the theory in a way that the physicists cannot exposit it. 
  • It is odd to call that philosophy, why is that not just physics? The answer is that it is physics, a part of physics that has largely been abandoned by physics departments. 
  • Physicists interested in the basic questions for example, what does quantum theory tell you about the world, which sounds like a question of physics, they get exiled from the physics departments.
  • Almost all physical behaviour that we understand, we understand though quantum mechanics.
  • We know how to get predictions out of it, and the predictions are tremendously accurate.
  • Quantum mechanics is the most important foundational theory of physics.
  • On the other hand it is the least understood. 
  • There is zero agreement about what quantum mechanics is telling us about the world.
  • Quantum mechanics is the most conceptually dark part of physics, at the same time being the most foundational part. 

So we learn that physicists do not have a clue about what quantum theory tells about the world and that  they are not interested in finding out. We learn that quantum mechanics is the most foundational part of physics but least understood, yet capable of tremendously accurate predictions! This is the situation 100 years after quantum mechanics was formed. 

That sounds pretty serious, but is in line with the impression I have accumulated in preparation of RealQM. 

I have invited Tim to comment.

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