We all knew it was true …
Some physicists are uncomfortable with the idea that all individual quantum events are innately random. This is why many have proposed more complete theories, which suggest that events are at least partially governed by extra “hidden variables”. Now physicists from Austria claim to have performed an experiment that rules out a broad class of hidden-variables theories that focus on realism — giving the uneasy consequence that reality does not exist when we are not observing it (Nature 446 871).
The experiments involve the firing of
entangled pairs of linearly-polarized photons in opposite directions towards two polarizers, which can be changed in orientation. Quantum mechanics says that there should be a high correlation between results at the polarizers because the photons instantaneously “decide” together which polarization to assume at the moment of measurement, even though they are separated in space.
Got that? A pair of photon twins (those are itty-bitty little particles of light) sent off in opposite direction simultaneously decide which polarity to assume at the precise moment when they are being observed. Apparently in Quantum theory, “realism, meaning that reality exists when we are not observing it; and locality, meaning that separated events cannot influence one another instantaneously” cannot both be assumed. The recent Austrian experiment claims to have shown that locality is not a problem, therefore isolating reality as suspect.
See? We’re in the Matrix. My questions then would be which of the philosophers of The Matrix were correct? Are the photons guided by purpose, destiny, causality or is it really choice? It seems that the questions all eventually come back to Design vs. Poof!.
So, do you want the red pill, or the blue pill?
Denyse O’Leary (whom I tend to link to often, and who I must thank for pointing out this article) comments:
Of course, I suspect that it is not “reality” that quantum physics bids us say goodbye to, but a simplistic materialist idea of how reality works. What if mind comes first, and is not an illusion created by the random fluctuations of matter in our brain.
She and Mario Beauregard have a book coming out called The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul that should prove very interesting, especially considering all of the recent “evo-psych” nonsense being tossed about.
Perhaps The Matrix is just a movie after all.