Written by Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli
[김동민 기자]
The original title of this book, written by the Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli, was “Helgoland”. Heligoland is a remote island in the North Sea and means “holy island”. Twenty-four-year-old Heisenberg stayed on this island in the summer of 1925 and invented the uncertainty principle of quantum physics using matrix mechanics. It was released in Korea last December under the title.
▲ Written by Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli ⓒ Sam & Parkers
Author’s words: “The story of the book begins on the island where Heisenberg’s ideas germinated and gradually expands to the broader questions raised by the discovery of the quantum structure of the reality of the world.” Bigger questions and new interpretations. It was amazing.
This is not simply a new interpretation of quantum mechanics, but a completely new interpretation of the entire world. Realism’s belief that invisible entities beyond phenomena must be identified is also undermined. In this way, new discoveries in the natural sciences shake almost all fields, including the humanities and social sciences, culture and art.
Standing on the shoulders of giants, Newton defined light as a particle and established the determinism that knowledge of initial conditions accurately predicts the future. In reality, the Earth orbits the Sun exactly in one year. The Moon rotates around the Earth over the course of a month and also follows the Earth around the Sun. The same goes for the other planets in the solar system.
When physicists first examined the space of atoms, they assumed that space would be like the solar system. But it was not so. Unlike the planets of the solar system, the electrons revolving around the atomic nucleus not only cannot simultaneously determine their position and speed, but also deviate from their orbits (quantum leap).
It moves like a wave and turns into a particle when observed, and a particle moves in two paths and turns into one path when observed. A photon exists in both paths, but when observed it only exists in one path. Two contradictory properties exist at the same time (quantum superposition).
From realism, which states that one can know without observing, emerged empiricism, which states that one can only know through observation. The position and velocity (momentum) of electrons can only be confirmed by “probability”. Furthermore, if you predict the position (X), it is not possible to know the speed, while if you predict the speed (P), it is not possible to verify the position. The measured value varies depending on which is measured first. XP and PX values are different. This is something that cannot happen in the macro world.
The key is the existence of an observer who performs the act of observation. What is important here is that the observer is also part of nature. It’s not like being away from nature. The conclusion is “relationship”. Relationship between observer and electron. It’s called the “relational interpretation of quantum theory.”
Instead of describing how a quantum object appears to an observer, it describes how one physical object acts on another physical object. We need to pay attention to the interactions they have with each other. So the world is a dense network of interactions. The observer and I are simply equal entities in the network, just like photons, cats and stars.
Niels Bohr said: “It is impossible to clearly separate the interaction between the atomic system and the measurements used to determine the conditions under which the phenomenon occurs from the behavior of that atomic system.” Rovelli saw that this now applies to all objects in the universe outside the laboratory. The properties of an object are revealed in how that object acts on other objects. Of course, this also applies to human society. My attributes are not fixed, but are expressed differently depending on the object and the interaction with the object. If there is no interaction, there are no properties.
Rovelli evaluates Bogdanov, Lenin, and Mach in chapter 5. Rovelli defends Mach, whom Lenin attacked harshly in , calling him a subjective idealist and a revisitation of Berkeley.
Like quantum physicists such as Bohr, Heisenberg, and Schrödinger, pioneers of quantum mechanics, Mach was both a physicist and a philosopher. The theory of relativity and quantum theory are said to have arisen under the influence of Mach. According to Rovelli, Lenin’s was written with the aim of criticizing the empirical-critical philosophy of Bogdanov and Mach, who were his colleagues and then political enemies.
Lenin contrasts idealism with the position of total materialism. Lenin cited Engels’s to justify his criticism of Mach. “Where does thought get this fundamental principle (i.e. the fundamental principle of all knowledge) from? From itself? No… This form is not created and derived from thought within itself, but only from the external world…. . ..This is only a materialist understanding of things, while Duhring’s concept is idealistic, it inverts things and constructs the real world as ideas.And with this logic Mach is criticized.
Rovelli criticizes this naive materialism. We usually think of the brain’s network of neurons as interpreting and identifying visual information transmitted from the outside. But in reality the opposite is true. Most signals do not travel from the eyes to the brain, but rather from the brain outward.
This means that what we see is not a reproduction of the outside, but rather modified with information that we can expect and understand. “We have a prize for the world, and if that prize doesn’t work, let’s try to fix it.”
Lenin or Rovelli, which perspective is right? Humans have been accustomed to intuitive judgment based on the survival instinct since the Paleolithic. In situations where risk has become commonplace, we have become accustomed to drawing hasty and incorrect conclusions based on our brief experience of having to make quick decisions to survive.
Predictable biases (systematic errors) have taken root in the brain by relying on heuristics, which are inferential judgments based on stereotypes. Considering these facts revealed by modern science, shouldn’t we reconsider the materialist idea that human consciousness is a reflection of social existence? According to Rovelli, in his debate with Mach, Mach was a dualist and thought about phenomena only in relation to the transcendental subject.
Rovelli denies the concept of absolute reality. “Reality can best be described as events that weave a web of interactions. An “entity” is just a temporary node in this network. The properties of an entity are determined only when these interactions occur, and its relationships with others are decided only within the relationship.
This is the reality demonstrated by quantum physics. Without the network of interactions and intertwined relationships, the world and I would not exist. Things only exist in context. A new vision of the world is opening up.
Copyright (c) OhmyNews (citizen reporter), unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited
▶Publish in series in the OhmyNews “Series”!
▶Support OhmyNews coverage
▶Enjoy OhmyNews on your mobile
☞ Mobile application [아이폰] [안드로이드]
☞Official SNS [페이스북] [트위터]
2024-01-02 06:43:00
#properties #interactive #relationships #Nate #News