Reality: The Harder We Look, The Less Real it Seems

Carlo Rovelli C

M. Katugampola, P. Gunawardhana, A. Schmidt +5 more

Jonathan Deutsch

In the double slit experiment - - central to quantum mechanics and thus to all of reality - - when you LOOK at the particle, it always passes through ONLY ONE slit - - EITHER the right slit OR the left slit, acting like a particle. However, when you AREN’T looking at it, it somehow always passes through BOTH slits - - the right slit AND the left slit - - at the same time, acting like a wave. All of nature is now KNOWN to be both wave and particle simultaneously - - actually, one entity (“wavicle”), not two - - at the most fundamental level of reality. However, no one seems to have ever asked the question: How can anything, much less everything, be in TW0 places at the same time AND ALSO SIMULTANEOUSLY be in ONLY ONE place at the same time? The known laws of physics make this absolutely impossible. Therefore, at least one of our laws must be wrong. In some fundamental mathematical and physical sense, 2 MUST ALSO BE (- - EQUAL- -) 1: 2 AS 1. The right and left slits, seemingly opposite, must at the deepest level of reality be “married” to each other - - one slit, not two. Extending this argument to Schrodinger’s cat, life and death, seemingly opposite, must at the deepest level of reality be “married” to each other, 2 AS 1. Just as all apparent opposites, it must be true that ultimately, life and death must be one thing, not two. This, then, is an all-optimistic physics - - probably the first such theory ever. But it is based entirely on firm scientific fact.

Gregor Weihs

Bruce Rosenblum, Fred Kuttner

Abstract Schrödinger told his cat story to show that quantum theory denied the existence of a physically real world, that quantum theory claimed that observation created the observed reality. That claim does seem crazy. Indeed, if someone on trial convinced the jury that he believed that his looking created the physical world, the jury would likely accept a plea of insanity.

John Sanfey