"If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies".

Albert Einstein

Quantum mechanics established without doubt that there is a fundamental limit to our ability to determine the exact picture of the physical world regardless of how we try to measure it. To our disbelief, this limit is a fundamental, inescapable property of the world. Moreover, quantum mechanics tell us that any particle does not move in a well-defined path. An electron for instance can move from point A to point B in space, however it is impossible to determine the path, which it took. It only tells us about the probability assigned to each path.

Quantum mechanics tells us that our perception of the world is blurred. Everyone agrees with that. However there is a great disagreement whether quantum mechanics provides a complete description of the physical world or does it leave something out. In other words, is this blurred picture due to an imperfection in our eyes (quantum physics) which means as we treat it we shall see a better quality picture (classical world picture), or is it due to the “reality” of the picture. (Copenhagen interpretation)

Copenhagen interpretation

This interpretation embraced by Bohr, Heisenberg and others denies the physical reality of the quantum world. It says that detecting an electron creates an electron with a position. Before detecting it we can not say that there is an electron.

In other words, this “weird” interpretation of the small world says that electrons, atoms, molecules are nothing but a world of probabilities, not “real” objective things out there.

As we mentioned before, the notion of “measurement” clearly plays a special role in quantum mechanics, since the wave function is supposed to change continuously and causally between measurements but to jump (collapse) discontinuously and acausally as soon as a measurement is made. This perception, however, is ambiguous, since quantum mechanics contains no instructions for deciding exactly when a measurement has to be made.

However, there is a real philosophical problem when we ask the question:

What really happens inside a measuring apparatus –i.e. Geiger counter – when we make a quantum measurement?

Copenhagen interpretation implicitly assumes that the measuring apparatus is a classical system. But in fact the measuring
device such as the Geiger counter consists of atoms and molecules, in which case it should itself be described by a quantum mechanical wave function; but if so, the device itself will in general not possess a definite value of all its physical qualities (including the reading of dials, etc) until these are themselves “measured”, and so on in an infinite regress.

Where do you stand?

 

Now that you swallowed the four capsules, where do you stand?

Are you with Bohr, Heisenberg, and the majority of others saying that there is actually no “physical reality” on the quantum level? If that is the case you ought to answer to the following problems: measurements, indeterminacy transfer from the atomic to the microscopic level. (Schrodinger cat measurement)

Are you with Einstein, and a few who believe that quantum mechanics is not a complete description of the physical world and somehow this dark portion of our knowledge of the world, as described by quantum mechanics, can indeed be lightened and explored by us.