In first learning of wave-particle duality*, my earliest assumption was given to believe that particle reality was given to exist only in the present moment of time, and further, that this was in principle accepted as a given concept across the quantum-mechanical train of thought. On recent investigation, however, I can find no reference to directly support this assumed actuality, and while this may indicate that I have simply not dug deeply enough, it may also indicate that wave-particle duality is more widely a bone of contention than an expression of truth concerning the spacetime continuum.
While scientists hotly dispute the nature and cause of "collapse of the wave packet", there is, in virtually every case of theoretical musing, a place for the observer. Suggestions that wave packets can only collapse into particle state when a researcher is on hand to watch it happen bring subtle smiles at the inference that it only happens in the laboratory, or when someone is sitting with a cat in a thought experiment. Taking implication that observation collapses the wave packet to its more rational conclusion, our collective observations collapse wave packets all the time, and since the definition of what is conscious and what is not is woolly at best, should we dare to venture that all material is conscious at some level of its nature (as the double-slit experiment would appear to indicate), then all material is observing all other material. The relationship between forms of matter, as in the relationship between species, is intrinsically entangled, all the time.
While scientists hotly dispute the nature and cause of "collapse of the wave packet", there is, in virtually every case of theoretical musing, a place for the observer. Suggestions that wave packets can only collapse into particle state when a researcher is on hand to watch it happen bring subtle smiles at the inference that it only happens in the laboratory, or when someone is sitting with a cat in a thought experiment. Taking implication that observation collapses the wave packet to its more rational conclusion, our collective observations collapse wave packets all the time, and since the definition of what is conscious and what is not is woolly at best, should we dare to venture that all material is conscious at some level of its nature (as the double-slit experiment would appear to indicate), then all material is observing all other material. The relationship between forms of matter, as in the relationship between species, is intrinsically entangled, all the time.
To me, the idea that the world I see around me only exists in particle format at the moment in which I view it is neither alien nor surprising, but this may be because I've held the view for a long time. I remember struggling to get my head around it, recognising that the vision of a house around the next corner was a solid reality to me only when I was in a position to view it, before which it was, to me, merely a wave form, while to the occupants of the house their observation perpetually held the walls around them in the format of solid reality, at least in terms of the room they were occupying at the time. But then, the struggle to get one's head around things takes many forms, and here I must indulge in an analogy.
When I was very young, I fell in love. By "very young" I mean yet to hit my twentieth year. I had little or no experience of over-thinking, I took life more or less for granted, the future was a vague set of rosy ideals and assimilating those parts of my soul torn from its roots was a treat reserved for later. When I was young, it was easy to run. I ran as fast as the next man could carry me to the southern edge of the mainland and vowed never to return to the territory which gravely hinted at semi-lethal danger. But I didn't bargain for circumstance. I didn't bargain for my own naivete and I certainly didn't bargain for divine timing. 32 years later, I was driven back to face those stolen parts of my soul and forced to consider them as a grown woman, falling into the chaos of unpredictability where the energy of passion and the blood of life meet to create the crazy contexts people write songs about.
In between times, I'd learned much about quantum mechanics, and when the train-wreck-in-waiting mowed me down flat, those lessons were leaned on in trusting they would help me to get back up again. In doing just that, my scantily-clad knowledge of the quantum field delivered experiences to rapidly consolidate what had been learned into what is now known. Whatever the future may hold, I will never be given to question the intense, personal implications of non-locality on human systems of communication, nor will I be tempted to underestimate the power of uncertainty in the casting of dice Einstein insisted God did not play with.
When I was very young, I fell in love. By "very young" I mean yet to hit my twentieth year. I had little or no experience of over-thinking, I took life more or less for granted, the future was a vague set of rosy ideals and assimilating those parts of my soul torn from its roots was a treat reserved for later. When I was young, it was easy to run. I ran as fast as the next man could carry me to the southern edge of the mainland and vowed never to return to the territory which gravely hinted at semi-lethal danger. But I didn't bargain for circumstance. I didn't bargain for my own naivete and I certainly didn't bargain for divine timing. 32 years later, I was driven back to face those stolen parts of my soul and forced to consider them as a grown woman, falling into the chaos of unpredictability where the energy of passion and the blood of life meet to create the crazy contexts people write songs about.
In between times, I'd learned much about quantum mechanics, and when the train-wreck-in-waiting mowed me down flat, those lessons were leaned on in trusting they would help me to get back up again. In doing just that, my scantily-clad knowledge of the quantum field delivered experiences to rapidly consolidate what had been learned into what is now known. Whatever the future may hold, I will never be given to question the intense, personal implications of non-locality on human systems of communication, nor will I be tempted to underestimate the power of uncertainty in the casting of dice Einstein insisted God did not play with.
Wave-particle duality seems to my mind to be the obvious product of the 3D construct we need to perceive as material beings. While we exist in life as we know it, as particle-based organisms, we need an existence to relate to. The 3D plane provides a template for that existence, as love provides a template for the unconditional relationship. In determining that the only moment in which I exist in particle format is the present one, I understand that the wave form of my past can drift and bend according to my perceptions, and that the future wave form I am yet to enter in the particle state may well be affected by those perceptions - if not in the events to be encountered (which are themselves cast according to the throw of unseen dice), rather more in my response to those events, which (should 'free will' be a reality) may well be the only thing of my choosing. If we perceive Time as a linear trajectory, which for this purpose alone (notwithstanding the Second Law of Thermodynamics) is a useful concept, it may be seen that shifting our positional perspective in relation to the past will automatically cause a variant in our trajectory towards the future, just as the needle on a compass will turn should we shuffle our feet round to the east or the west.
Thus it becomes clear that no matter the breadth and depth of the scientific arguments or how long they may continue, the simplicity inherent in our own interpretation of quantum mechanics is not only peppered with gems of wisdom, it is also useful in the development of a personal guidance system. For in the deepest recesses of Self we are aware of the perspectives which serve us best, and those in kind tend to serve others as we would wish to be served ourselves. In accepting our small helping of life from the bubbling cauldron of the quantum continuum, we are duty bound to eat it all. There is a school of thought believing that you are what you eat, and in this context, never a truer word was spoken in which to forever hold our peace.
Thus it becomes clear that no matter the breadth and depth of the scientific arguments or how long they may continue, the simplicity inherent in our own interpretation of quantum mechanics is not only peppered with gems of wisdom, it is also useful in the development of a personal guidance system. For in the deepest recesses of Self we are aware of the perspectives which serve us best, and those in kind tend to serve others as we would wish to be served ourselves. In accepting our small helping of life from the bubbling cauldron of the quantum continuum, we are duty bound to eat it all. There is a school of thought believing that you are what you eat, and in this context, never a truer word was spoken in which to forever hold our peace.
* Extract from embedded article:
"It was like we had discovered the 'Rosetta Stone' that connected two different languages," says Coles. "The literature on wave-particle duality was like hieroglyphics that we could now translate into our native tongue. We had several eureka moments when we finally understood what people had done," he says.
Because the entropic uncertainty relations used in their translation have also been used in proving the security of quantum cryptography - schemes for secure communication using quantum particles - the researchers suggest the work could help inspire new cryptography protocols.
In earlier papers, Wehner and collaborators found connections between the uncertainty principle and other physics, namely quantum 'non-locality' and the second law of thermodynamics. The tantalising next goal for the researchers is to think about how these pieces fit together and what bigger picture that paints of how nature is constructed.
https://phys.org/news/2014-12-quantum-physics-complicated.html
"It was like we had discovered the 'Rosetta Stone' that connected two different languages," says Coles. "The literature on wave-particle duality was like hieroglyphics that we could now translate into our native tongue. We had several eureka moments when we finally understood what people had done," he says.
Because the entropic uncertainty relations used in their translation have also been used in proving the security of quantum cryptography - schemes for secure communication using quantum particles - the researchers suggest the work could help inspire new cryptography protocols.
In earlier papers, Wehner and collaborators found connections between the uncertainty principle and other physics, namely quantum 'non-locality' and the second law of thermodynamics. The tantalising next goal for the researchers is to think about how these pieces fit together and what bigger picture that paints of how nature is constructed.
https://phys.org/news/2014-12-quantum-physics-complicated.html
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