PREFACE
Imagine a world in which half the people behave like quantum particles and the other half behave ‘normally'. The quantum particle half, the ‘Blues', walk through walls, engage in multiple partner ‘nuclear' families, and are capable of mass coordinated physical movements, as in superfluids or super- conductors. The other half, the ‘Reds', study the Blues and their social scientists come up with a Quantum Theory of Blue Behavior. The excitement begins when the ‘Red' scientists of differing points of view discuss their interpretations of this theory.
Are the ‘Blues' human like the ‘Reds', or is it impossible to understand them except in terms of quantum wave functions? This conflict between the ideas of Devon ‘Wizard of Odds' Baum (David Bohm) and Stan Exciting (Neils Bohr) is the theme of this book. Presented in satirical allegory form, the sensibility of the Bohm point of view becomes clear with the analogy of the ‘Blue' sharing of information as on the information superhighway, the Quantum Particle Internet.
Fifty years after Copernicus ‘died', Giordano Bruno was burned alive for espousing and extending the ideas of Copernicus. In the 1630's Galileo was forced to recant his support of the Copernican system. Thus the great ‘revolution' of Copernicus and his sun-centered solar system took about 100 years.
This book honors the ideas of another great revolutionary, David Bohm. Like Copernicus, his major work was published in the year of his passing. This was exactly 450 years after Copernicus published De Revolutionibus in 1543. Like Copernicus, his work too signifies a major shift in perspective on the universe..
David Bohm, with his friend, Basil Hiley, put the finishing touches on the work, The Indivisible Universe, in 1992. It was the year of his transition. It was published in 1993, and the period of its difficult acceptance has begun. Will it be 100 years before it takes its proper place in our understanding of the world? Possibly, but the number of adherents to his strange idea of non-locality is growing perhaps at a faster rate than those who stood by Copernicus. Will there be martyrs to the new revolution? We hope we have learned open- mindedness from history.
The revolution, like that of Copernicus, may impact all areas of science. The former Descartian sense of divide and conquer in scientific study is already giving way to the necessity of seeing the universe as a whole. But will the view of Newton and Einstein that action at a distance is a ‘philosophical absurdity' and ‘spooky' be laid aside for the beauty of the ‘unbroken wholeness' of Bohm's quantum potential? Only time will tell. We await the verdict of the 21st Century.
Physicists search for the simple ‘elementary particles' and yet David Bohm suggests that these particles may be as complex as human beings, working with what he calls ‘active information' like surfers on what one could call the "quantum particle internet".
A marvelous analogy exists between non-local particle interactions and the gleaning of information from the world wide web. Like all analogies, it's not perfect, but it is detailed and enchanting. When you connect to a network or the internet, you become part of the whole. In a similar fashion, a particle wave-function becomes inseparable from another group of particles with which it ‘connects' by measurement or interaction. It acts as if it had inside information on the state of the other particles and their environment. It is not quite like getting e-mail from all of them. It is, however, a net-like connectedness, which may be broken when its wave-function becomes ‘separable'--very much like ‘logging off'.
Sometimes particles all dance together, like on some enormous World Wide Web Day. Superconductivity finds pairs of electrons all moving in phase, with their wave functions entirely entangled. This is like billions of couples dancing together in phase. How do they know what to do and when? Active information may be responsible (the fact that the dancers have minicomputers in their pockets, all connected to the same server).
Then how is it that in the lab we can do classical physics? It turns out that macroscopic objects like billiard balls and peoples' bodies have wave functions that separate out like computers disconnected from any network whatsoever, local area network or internet.
Quantum measurement is like going to a web-site and having a choice of sub-pages to click on. Once you click, you choose to interact with that page, perhaps to purchase a computer game you like. Before you click, there was a probability that you would choose that page, and a probability you would choose any of the other possible pages (quantum states).
Some badly-constructed web-sites allow you to ‘decohere', that is, not to be able to click back to the home- page. You're stuck on a sub-page forevermore, (unless you understand the ‘back' button). Quantum states are like that. Some states interact with others and some do not.
What about radioactivity? What allows a neutron to tunnel through the ‘wall' of the nuclear potential? Some mysteries have to be left for the rest of the book. There are lots of them.
These mysteries are explored in a narrative form. The historical unfoldment of Quantum Theory is presented, tongue-in-cheek, for a mythical society on the planet, Mearth, half connected and half not: the Blues and Reds. The Reds are unaware of hidden Blue computers and their information connection. Along the way, we are introduced to Red scientists, such as Halbert Zweistein (Einstein) who have faith that the connected Blues are human, and Stan Exciting (Neils Bohr) who considers Blues an unfathomable mystery with calculable behavior.
The first chapter tells the story of Stan Exciting's ‘establishment' Copenhagen interpretation of the Quantum Theory of Blue behavior. In contrast, the pilot wave interpretation of Saint Louis DeBrocade (Prince Louis DeBroglie), treats Blues like normal humans with a holistic interrelatedness. This becomes the basis of the interpretation of the ‘Wizard of Odds' Devon Baum (Bohm). His work is suggested by the incompleteness of Quantum Theory, pointed out by Baum's teacher, Zweistein. Meanwhile, everyone is playing dice to understand Quantum Theory. Halbert voices his objection: ‘God doesn't play dice with the Blues.' The Blue Information Superhighway is revealed to Baum inadvertently by an intoxicated Blue, and Blue Behavior can finally be understood.
The second chapter is the account of Baum's Quantum Potential, which is like the field of information available over the internet. It is the form and content of the wave-function, not the amplitude of the ‘signal', that determines the reaction of a connected Blue (quantum particle). Baum contends that the Blues have access to ‘active information', like the radio signal used to pilot a robot ship.
In the third chapter, blue groups (the many body problem) are explored. How do Blues behave in concert? It is seen that an individual Blue ‘PC' can hook up to local networks or the World Wide Web depending on situation (experiment or measurement). The meaning of relative independence of Blues under certain circumstances (wave function separability is explored). A Blue becomes connected by ‘logging on' (inseparability).
The fourth chapter investigates the process of ‘logging on' to the quantum particle internet. Sometimes a Blue may use different ‘screen-names' over the same internet provider. Some act like ‘reflected waves', some ‘transmitted waves' and other possibilities. Some Blues have trouble logging on. They have long relaxation times.
Chapter five deals with quantum measurement and how it is like Blues choosing what to click on at a web-site. The Zweistein--Puddleski--Rosenzweig (EPR) experiment is explained. This has to do with the mysterious employment-- unemployment of sister wives in a molecular family of Blues.
Chapter six investigates the Blue chat rooms of ‘superconductivity' and ‘superfluidity'. Blues connect and do outrageous things, like thousands dancing in perfect step. Virtual Places for Blues are found to exist online. They believe that Virtual Reality is more real than physical reality.
Chapter seven talks about ‘favorite places' or ‘bookmarks', lists of URL's that are like Baum's (David Bohm's) enfolded order. Could it be that the Schrodinger equation is America Online? How well does it function? Will Schrodinger's Cat ever log on again?
Chapter eight zaps into other realities, other upcoming interpretations of the Quantum Blue Information Superhighway. This includes the Blue versions of Stapp's, Gell-Mann and Hartle's, Ghirardi, Rimini,. and Weber's, and the author's own extension of Philip Pearle's physical wave function reduction through the brain (the Quantum Tai Chi). These are explained as narrative of the discovery of Blue connectedness by Red social scientists.
Nine wraps it all into a neat little ‘web page' with lots of ‘URLs' favorite places, and possibilities for the future. We are back on Planet Earth. Where will quantum scientists go next? Bohm gives us the vision of a Holographic Universe. Does Bohm's theory explain ESP? Sightings of UFOs? Consciousness? Life after death? ‘Welcome to the Quantum Particle Internet's Home Page'. Perhaps that's what the preface will be in an online version of this book.