Is Quantum Mechanics Pointless

Frank Arntzenius

There exist well-known conundrums, such as measure-theoretic paradoxes and problems of contact, which, within the context of classical physics, can be used to argue against the existence of points in space and space-time. I examine whether quantum mechanics provides additional reasons for supposing that there are no points in space and space-time.

Lee Billings

RW Boyer

Daniel T. Gillespie

Jacques Moret‐Bailly

The formalism of quantum mechanics produces spectacular results, but its rules, its parameters are empirical, either deduced from classical physics, or from experimental results rather than from the postulates. Thus, quantum mechanics is purely phenomenological; for instance, the computation of the eigenvalues of the energy is generally a simple interpolation in the discrete space of the quantum numbers. The attempts to show that quantum electrodynamics is more precise than classical electrodynamics are based on wrong computations. The lack of paradoxes in the classical theory, the appearance of classical, true interpretations of the wave-particle duality justify the criticism of Ehrenfest and Einstein. The obscurity of the quantum concepts leads to wrong conclusions that handicap the development of physics. Just as building a laser was considered absurd before the first maser worked, the concept of photon leads to deny a type of coherent Raman scattering necessary to understand some redshifts of spectra in astrophysics, and able to destroy the two fundamental proofs to the expansion of the universe.