Poetry has rules, the sea has rules, even chaos has rules.  Quantum mechanics breaks all the rules that make sense in real life.   Yet, if you look really carefully, some of the principles described to explain the sub-atomic world are perfectly logical in daily life.

Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle says that it’s possible to know some things, but the more you know about one thing the less you know about another.  I know some people who are world experts in their field, but I wouldn’t trust them with a can opener ~ they have concentrated on knowing everything there is to know about one thing, to the exclusion of knowing anything at all about everything else.  That is a perfect example of being a hopeless human being.  A real Renaissance Man knows a lot about everything, and at one in the same time can do most things ~ from making a wooden chair to designing a boat, and then building it.

Quantum logic also states that the very act of observing something changes the thing / person you are observing.  We all know this is absolutely true.  As a gross example most people will not scratch their groin if they think there is anyone watching them.  A more subtle example is to be found in your significant other.  He / she behaves differently when you are around to the way she / he behaves when she is alone or with a circle of friends that does not include you.  Normally your significant other is much better behaved when you are observing them than when they are free of your scrutiny.  Most sane people will not have sex with another person / several people when you are watching them.

In fact, if you are watching something / someone, both of you stop being independent entities and become one system.  For example, professional sports cannot exist without a crowd, and the crowd becomes part of the game.

And, then there is the damn cat.  Schrödinger’s cat lives in a box and is both dead and alive at one in the same time.  The assumption is that the cat is neither dead or alive until you open the box and take a look.  As far as I am concerned the only lesson you can take into real life from this bit of quantum logic is that it’s pointless to worry about anything until it happens.  Don’t dig a grave until you have an actual dead cat.

Schrödinger’s cat leads into the probabilistic nature of the universe.  This says two things;

1. Nothing is certain.  There is only a choice of probable / possible outcomes which range from the very likely to the almost totally impossible.  But, any of those outcomes is possible.
2. Even the most unlikely thing can and will happen.

Someone will win big on the lottery the first time they buy a ticket.  The Americans will honestly believe they know how to make a cup of tea.  President Obama will not make a fool of himself in Africa.

The multiple universes claimed to exist by quantum theory mean that anything imaginable is possible.  For example; Isis and Aphrodite exist today,  King Arthur is alive and well and still has Excalibur, and I may finally come to terms with the true nature of spirituality.  No, that last will never happen.

~

jack collier

jackcollier7@talktalk.net

English Gentleman, moine guerrier