From the archive: even more quantum quandaries
A retrospective (Part III)
See here for Part I and here for Part II of this retrospective.
“Of all the theories proposed in the 20th century, the silliest is quantum theory. Some say the only thing that quantum theory has going for it is that it is unquestionably correct.” — Michio Kaku1
“The most satisfying way to end a philosophical dispute is to find a false presupposition that underlies all the puzzles it involves.” — Bas Van Fraassen2
“There are no ‘wheels and gears’ beneath this analysis of Nature.” — Richard Feynman3
“Not a year has gone by in the last 30 when there was not a meeting or conference devoted to some aspect of the quantum foundations. ... Go to any meeting devoted to some aspect of the quantum foundations, and it is like being in a holy city in great tumult. You will find all the religions with all their priests pitted in holy war — the Bohmians, the Consistent Historians, the Transactionalists, the Spontaneous Collapseans, the Einselectionists, the Contextual Objectivists, the outright Everettics, and many more beyond that. They all declare to see the light, the ultimate light. Each tells us that if we will accept their solution as our savior, then we too will see the light.” — Chris Fuchs4
“While I am describing to you how nature works, you won’t understand why nature works that way. But you see, nobody understands that.” —Richard Feynman5
Michio Kaku, Hyperspace (Oxford University Press, 1994).
Bas Van Fraassen, Quantum Mechanics: An Empiricist View (Oxford University Press, 1991).
Richard Feynman, QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Princeton University Press, 1985).
Chris Fuchs, “Quantum mechanics as quantum information (and only a little more),” in: A. Khrennikov (Ed.), Quantum Theory: Reconsideration of Foundations (Växjö University Press, 2002).
Richard Feynman, QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Princeton University Press, 1985).