liberty punk
"the irony of the information age is that it's given new respectability to uninformed opinion."


Tuesday, November 25, 2003  

Bohr-ing

Actually it's not. Boring, I mean.

I'm talking about this guy's explanation of how quantum physics works. If it doesn't completely blow your mind by chapter two, then you weren't reading it carefully enough. Or maybe you are a robot, or perhaps an ant, lacking the ability to fully comprehend existence. Check it out.

Also check out Kevin's comment on the post below this one-- he does a good job of explaining, in very simple terms, how quantum theory does not exactly fly in the face of everything we know about the universe. It only kinda does. Things we think of as intuitive, like cause-and-effect, don't always hold true at the subatomic level, ya see. Stuff can happen without the thing that caused it to happen happening yet. 'Naw mean?

This is some nutty stuff. Here's what two prominent physicists had to say about it back in their days:

"Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory does not understand it." - Niels Bohr, 1927

"Nobody understands quantum theory." - Richard Feynman, 1967

Those two quotes are printed just like that on the intro page to Michael Crichton's Timeline, which, incidentally, is now a major motion picture directed by Richard Donner who also directed Goonies which starred Martha Plimpton.

In case you forgot.

posted by geoff | 11:17 AM |
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