lew (05/10/82)
The Heisenberg-Bohr tranquilizing philosophy - or religion? - is so delicately contrived that, for the time being, it provides a gentle pillow for the true believer from which he cannot very easily be aroused. So let him lie there. --- Einstein in a letter to Schroedinger, 1928 It seems to me that the concept of probability is terribly mishandled these days. Probability surely has as its substance a statement as to whether something IS or IS NOT the case - an uncertain statement to be sure. But nevertheless it has meaning only if one is indeed convinced that the something in question quite definitely either IS or IS NOT the case. --- Schroedinger in a letter to Einstein, 1950 This disquiet has been focused largely on what is called *the measurement problem* though this expression conceals muddled thought. To speak as though there were this one remaining problem to solve before quantum theory could be properly consistent is a bit like saying that the project of finding an overland route to Australia was waiting only for the solution of a last remaining problem - the *closure problem* they might call it - constituted by the closed perimeter of that continent. --- Ted Bastin in *The Encyclopedia of Ignorance*, 1977 I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, *But, how can it be like that?* You will go down down the drain into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. --- Richard Feynman, quoted in a *Discover* magazine book review, May 1982