Quantum Weirdness

In the latest issue of Seed magazine (the byline of the magazine is: "Science is Culture") there is an article about some physicists in Austria doing some experiments to confirm/disconfirm quantum effects - non-locality and object permanence, if I remember correctly. The article is poorly written, in my opinion, and doesn't do much to help a non-physicist like me really follow the logic of quantum weirdness, but it is worth reading, if only to be reminded that this is still very controversial and fascinating stuff.

I read a book back in graduate school, in a Philosophy of Science seminar, called "The Ghost in the Atom". It's still in print, and though it's dry, I remember it to be a better presentation of the issues - which apparently haven't changed in the intervening 15 years. I will be re-reading that book in the coming days. In the meantime, I also got this book: Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness. I got the hard copy, and paid an extra $4 to get an online copy so that I could start reading it right away.

The authors of Quantum Enigma are physicists, who are latecomers to the historical and philosophical context and implications of their trade. I'm reading the beginning chapters in which they are attempting to set the context that will - hopefully - reveal the implications of quantum mechanics in all their weirdness. They start with Aristotle's science, such as it was, up through the middle ages, renaissance, and the scientific revolution.

These first chapters are a little rough, mostly because they are simplistic, and rather personality-centered: Aristotle, Aquinas, Copernicus, Galileo. Not just their names, but what they were like, who they were. That is not bad - actually, this was an aspect of the history of science that I wished for more of in graduate school. Nevertheless, I am feeling the logical thread missing - and therefore the weirdness missing.

One interesting thing that the authors do is present a macroscopic example of the implication of object non-permanence. Quantum mechanics, if true - and so far, every test confirms the truth of quantum mechanics - applies to the macro and not just the micro level of matter, and it implies that objects don't exist per se until they are perceived by a conscious observer. What that looks like on the macro level IS pretty weird.

One thing I've been thinking: there is another weird implication of quantum mechanics, that is mutually exclusive with the object non-permanence, and that is instantaneous coordination of unconnected objects. According to the authors, if qm is true, then either one or the other of these reality principles is not true: objects exist whether or not they are observed; and two objects separated by vast distances cannot instantaneously influence one another. My meditation was specifically: Why are these two principles mutually exclusive? What's going on between these two principles that either one or the other has to go???