Einstein’s Quantum Error Einstein’s Quantum Error: An Approach to Rationality By Simon Altmann Einstein’s Quantum Error: An Approach to Rationality By Simon Altmann This book first published 2018 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2018 by Simon Leonardo Altmann All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-1085-9 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-1085-2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ........................................................................................................ ix Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1 What This Book is All About Causality ................................................................................................ 1 Causality as contextual: consequences................................................... 2 Rational thinking .................................................................................... 5 Randomness ........................................................................................... 5 Creation .................................................................................................. 6 The new rationality ................................................................................ 6 Chapter Two ................................................................................................ 7 How Causality Came to Be Early attempts at understanding causality .............................................. 7 Causality and philosophers .................................................................... 9 Nature’s regularities ............................................................................. 10 Time and causality ............................................................................... 12 Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 15 More About Causality: Hume Hume as a natural scientist .................................................................. 15 Hume’s ‘custom or habit’ .................................................................... 16 Philosophers versus Hume ................................................................... 17 Hume’s programme ............................................................................. 19 Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 23 Darwin and a New View of Causality Evolution .............................................................................................. 23 The brain’s neural network .................................................................. 24 The neural network and causality ........................................................ 26 vi Table of Contents Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 31 How Randomness Entered Physics Early work ........................................................................................... 31 The neural network again ..................................................................... 32 Phenomenalists vs atomists .................................................................. 32 Boltzmann ............................................................................................ 33 Brownian motion and Einstein ............................................................. 33 Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 39 Quantum Mechanics, Probability, and Einstein Classical trajectories ............................................................................ 39 Classical trajectories and existence ...................................................... 39 Quantum particles: observing the electron ........................................... 40 Einstein: a first reaction ....................................................................... 42 Randomness in Quantum Mechanics ................................................... 42 Bohr’s misguided attempt at epistemology .......................................... 43 Einstein’s views of quantum mechanics .............................................. 44 Uncertainty principle ........................................................................... 45 Entanglement ....................................................................................... 46 Superposition principle and the Schrödinger cat ................................. 47 Coda ..................................................................................................... 50 Chapter Seven ............................................................................................ 57 Creation Miracles ............................................................................................... 57 The vacuum and the Big Bang ............................................................. 58 Anthropic principle .............................................................................. 58 Chapter Eight ............................................................................................. 65 The New Enemies of Rationality The anti-rationalists ............................................................................. 66 Detractors of Hume .............................................................................. 66 Mathematical Platonism ....................................................................... 67 Quantum mechanics and the human mind ........................................... 69 Cultural relativism ............................................................................... 70 Paradigms ............................................................................................ 71 Scientific revolutions ........................................................................... 72 Coda ..................................................................................................... 73 Einstein's Quantum Error: An Approach to Rationality vii Chapter Nine .............................................................................................. 89 Philosophy of Science after Darwin Chapter Ten ............................................................................................... 93 Science, Spirituality, Religion Epilogue ..................................................................................................... 97 Science, Art, and Religion ................................................................... 97 Science without metaphysics ............................................................... 98 Art without beauty ............................................................................. 100 Religion without absolutes ................................................................. 106 Some Books ............................................................................................. 111 Quotes from Reviews of Books by the Same Author .............................. 113 About the Author ..................................................................................... 115 Index ........................................................................................................ 117 PREFACE This little book aims at introducing a difficult subject in the most user- friendly way possible, so that the reader will not be distracted by being offered more material than is essential. This is possible because all necessary bibliographical references as well as any additional material may be obtained from my more detailed book, Is Nature Supernatural? I am sure I do not need to stress the importance of the subjects I treat here. Einstein’s strong aversion to the probabilistic aspects of quantum mechanics obscured the understanding of this theory by scientists and the public. Even now, despite so much excellent work in the literature, its interpretation might appear confusing to the non-specialist. The problem is that few books, if any, start from a discussion of the criteria by which basic principles are validated. And the crucial point made in this text is that principles that are used in the macroworld lose validity when dealing with elementary particles such as electrons and photons (the microworld). This explains why it is unavoidable that probability statements be used for such elementary particles, a question that so much exercised Einstein’s mind. The work discussed above will be conducted through a simple but careful analysis of Hume’s ideas on causality, which fits in seamlessly with Darwin’s theory of evolution. One important result of this analysis is that it provides a good example of what rational thinking entails. It is a strange feature of our culture that despite the extraordinary successes of science, scepticism about it appears to be on the increase: belief in creationism and climate change denial are just two serious examples. What is even more worrying, however, is that some perfectly respectable academics, even scientists, with undoubtedly first-class intellects, appear prone to propagate ideas that undermine scientific thinking. I shall discuss a plausible reason