Alright strap yourselves in. Quantum mechanics is here is blow your mind and it will not be denied. Now you might think you’re not interested in quantum mechanics, but this isn’t really about quantum mechanics it’s about what to do with our flicker of consciousness and stuff. So an object is considered to be “real” if it exists with definite properties independent of observation. It is “local” according to the principle that objects can only be influenced by their surroundings. One property many particles have is spin, which is measured as “up” or “down”. If you know the spin of a particle and break it into two particles, you know their spins will always complement each other because their sum is known — the particles are entangled. SO GET THIS: You entangle a pair of particles. You separate them. When you measure them, one particle’s spin will ALWAYS be up and the other down, 100% of the time, even when they’re lightyears apart !! You might think that’s just because they inherited these properties when they separated, but their quantum states are random not consistent: you do not know the particle’s spin until you measure it. in fact they do not HAVE a definite state until measured, and are considered to exist in multiple states because of quantum superposition. So as soon as you measure an entangled particle, the other one INSTANTANEOUSLY collapses into the opposite spin. as if telepathically, like it KNOWS. And we know no information could have travelled between the particles because nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. It’s wÈïṞḏ™️
And this observer effect isn’t just some anomalous glitch exclusive to this experiment. When you pass photons one by one through a plate containing two slits onto an observed screen, an interference pattern is created on the screen due to the wave nature of light — the light wave passes through both slits simultaneously and interferes with itself. BUT, if you monitor the photons passing through the slits, they are always found to be passing through either one or the other, and the interference pattern disappears. because it’s only absorbed at the screen at those two discrete points, exhibiting particle, not wave, behaviour. it changes its behaviour based on whether there is detection! So a particle can be described as either a wave or particle before measurement. Wave-particle duality! Where the particles are detected is probabilistic; you can never predict their behaviour for certain. again, quantum superposition.
So anyway by measuring an entangled particle you can somehow influence the quantum state of the other entangled particle, both by collapsing its state and doing so instantaneously. This is bewilderingly uncomfortable right, because it throws everything we know about classical physics out the window. Well it was also uncomfortable to Einstein, who couldn’t accept that quantum mechanics was the full story of reality, and proposed there must be hidden variables that we haven’t yet discovered. But no one could test this theory, UNTIL decades later when John Bell devised an experiment to test for hidden variables. In the years since, this eponymous Bell test — the separated entangled particles experiment with extra detector settings — has been conducted many times and increasingly rigorously. ruling out loopholes. enlarging the distance between entangled particles. And every single time, quantum mechanics proved triumphant. even when a cosmic Bell test was done based on stars hundreds of light years apart! This is what won the Nobel in physics. There are no hidden variables. Particles can be connected, entangled, no matter how far apart they are !¡!
THEREFORE. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? two things: Objects are NOT only influenced by their surroundings AND objects do NOT have definite properties/states unless measured. Are you hearing this? OBJECTS ARE NOT LOCALLY REAL.
So deeply contrary to our everyday experiences that we didn’t really probe into this realm until like a hundred years ago. It doesn’t affect our everyday lives; we don’t need to know about quantum entanglement to survive or live happy lives, but we still WANT TO KNOW. We still wonder. How fucking phenomenal is that. In love with this relentless pursuit of truth and desire for knowledge unique to our species. Floored by the dedication of these physicists who kept digging at this despite the pessimism and dismissal of hordes of people, despite the it’s-too-hard-so-just-leave-it pressure. We too are just particles that lumped together and evolved into consciousness, but every day we use that consciousness to search for meaning, even when that quest may reinforce our own fragility and futility.
And I wouldn’t trade that for anything in this unreal world.
