Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

longship

(40,416 posts)
8. That's not any physics I studied.
Thu Mar 28, 2013, 09:15 PM
Mar 2013

That sounds more like newage (rhymes with sewage) rubbish, like The Secret which apparently promises you that if you want a unicorn that farts rainbows, all you have to do is wish hard enough for it. Or like What the Bleep Do We Know!? which is put out by the cult of Ramtha, a kooky cult started by one JZ Knight (AKA Judith Darlene Hampton) who claims to channel Ramtha (undoubtedly in a cheesy Hindu accent), a Lemurian who fought Atlanteans some 35,000 years ago.

Many woo woo scammers and true believers adopt quantum physics because quantum physics is both very weird and very difficult, the former undoubtedly because of the latter. Most importantly, what gives the woo woo people the ability to co-opt the quantum is that almost nobody understands it. That provides a safe haven for the scammers and believers to just make shit up about the quanta. When they appear on TV, who's going to challenge what they say? Larry King? Oprah? Wolf Blitzer?

The kooks get a free pass because explaining quantum physics is very difficult without understanding the mathematics underpinning the theory. Even then, the concepts are still not intuitive.

The quantum world that exists at the micro level does not operate by the same rules as our macro world where all the craziness of the quantum averages out to nothing. What remains are a collection of emergent behaviors that we recognize as normal behavior in our macro world, all emergent from the rules at the quantum level.

But does it go the other way? Good question. The answer is not as far as anybody has measured. Yes, there are multiple specially designed experiments which seem to show a top-down causal relationship, and others which show so-called macro atomic constructs which act as a single quantum entity, but neither of these should be a comfort to the quantum woo woo adherents. Regardless, the woo woos will cite them anyway because virtually nobody will understand what they are saying enough to challenge them.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»Science»Does anyone know what tha...»Reply #8