2023-01-31, 09:27 PM
Physics is in crisis. Quantum cosmology can save it and point us toward the theory of everything
Heinrich Päs
Heinrich Päs
Quote:[*]Heinrich Päs is a German theoretical physicist and professor at TU Dortmund University.[*]
[*]In this excerpt from his book The One, Päs connects quantum physics to an ancient idea about the foundations of reality known as "monism."
[*]Arguing that physics is in crisis, Päs draws on science and philosophy to take a mind-expanding look at the nature of the universe, with his ultimate goal being to "save the soul of science."
Quote:“Hold on,” you may object. “Quantum mechanics applies only to tiny things: atoms, elementary particles, maybe molecules. Applying it to the universe doesn’t make sense.” You will be surprised to learn that there are increasingly many good hints that this conviction is wrong. Between 1996 and 2016 alone, six Nobel Prizes were awarded for so-called macroscopic quantum phenomena. Quantum mechanics seems to apply universally, a finding whose consequences are just starting to be explored.
You may throw up your hands and protest that such a discussion is pointless. Physics seems to work just fine without any such metaphysical pondering. Fact is, it doesn’t. At present, physics is facing a crisis that forces us to reconsider what we understand as “fundamental” in the first place. Right now, the most brilliant particle physicists and cosmologists are alienated by experimental findings of extremely unlikely coincidences that so far defy any explanation. At the same time, the quest for a theory of everything is bereaving physics of its foundational concepts, such as matter, space, and time. If these are gone, what remains?
Quote:...Decoherence is the agent protecting our daily-life experience from too much quantum weirdness. And it realizes the rest of Heraclitus’s tenet: “from One all things.”
As a consequence, we will have to work out how such a notion changes our perspective on philosophy’s deepest questions—“What is matter? ” “What is space? ” “What is time? ” “How did the universe come into being?”—and even on what religious people call “God” (since for centuries, the concept of an all-encompassing unity was identified with God). We will also have to confront why monism is not more popular, if it follows so straightforwardly from quantum mechanics. Why does it sound so bizarre to us? Where does our intuitive, deprecative reflex come from? To really understand this bias, we have to venture into the history of monism.