Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> Albert Einstein hated the idea of quantum physics.

Einstein came up with most of what physicists now recognize as the essential features of quantum physics. He was not anti quantum, he just believed randomness could not be a fundamental feature of nature.



Einstein also had a bunch of real, substantial objections.

One of the big ones had to do with whether the "fields" formulation was valid and primary. One of the issues is that if you follow the fields formulations that Einstein believed in out to conclusion you get things like "atomic oribtals never decay".

Which, of course, is obviously wrong. And an example of one of the reasons why Bohr is considered to have won his debates with Einstein.

Except

Einstein was right! We now know that when you isolate an atom, it's atomic orbital decay gets slower and slower the more you isolate it.

The problem at the time was that all of the experiments that could be run were statistical aggregations and obscured the nature of single state quantum systems.


N.b.. Rob Koon's book[0] may be of interest to some of the more philosophically inclined. He argues that the proper interpretation of QM is in light of hylomorphic dualism.

[0] https://a.co/d/6eq227u




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: