Chapter Content
## Chapter 9: The Physics of Belief
> "The cosmos is not merely more astonishing than we fathom; it surpasses our capacity to even conceive."
> - Attributed to a Fictional Physicist, Dr. Eleanor Vance
Ever watch a hawk launching into the sky? It hops along, gathering momentum, wings beating fiercely, talons scratching the earth. Then, there's this miraculous moment: it's airborne.
That's what happens when we fuse logical reasoning with our innate sense of wonder.
Logic, our intellectual horsepower, gets us moving forward, a steady pace toward solving a puzzle. But our sense of wonder, that intuitive superpower, gives us wings. We ascend to vantage points unattainable on foot.
It transports us to places our intellect can't quite grasp, can't empirically prove, can't even imagine. It's the driving force behind humanity's relentless quest for knowledge.
It reminds me of an old tune popular after the Great War, about soldiers returning from foreign lands. “How are you going to keep them planting seeds," it crooned, "after their eyes beheld such vistas?”
That innate sense of wonder, a deep, penetrating intuition, unveils realities that transcend logic. Once you've tasted it, you'll never be content merely existing on the familiar plane again.
Because of it, we're captivated by things like gravity ripples, ghost-like particles, and empty space simmering with energy. Phenomena seemingly irrelevant to the daily grind of survival. Ironically, our obsession with such obscure subjects has even spawned inventions that threaten our very existence.
Why are we driven to explore the most remote, most arcane mysteries of existence? What compels us to investigate what lies beyond the visible?
It's not some design flaw, as some materialists assert. It's compelling evidence that these extraordinary realms *do* exist – realities beyond the grasp of conventional understanding.
No one appreciates this more than those of us who dedicate our lives to the study of physics.
**Physics: A Never-Ending Apprenticeship**
The discipline of physics, like science in general, is perpetually in flux, perpetually evolving. This is both a blessing and a challenge.
The upside is that physicists are constantly exposed to mind-bending revelations. The downside is that scientific doctrines are always subject to revision. New discoveries continually challenge established wisdom, overturning outdated beliefs and ingrained dogmas that may have crept into the scientific worldview.
From time to time, these revelations require a radical re-evaluation of our understanding, producing transformative shifts in perspective. These are the biggest paradigm shifts physics has experienced thus far:
* **Paradigm Shift #1:** In the 4th century BC, the Greek scholar Aristotle penned a collection of writings known as *Physics*. It served as a proto-textbook, laying the foundation for what became known as Aristotelian physics.
* **Paradigm Shift #2:** In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton, the celebrated English mathematician and physicist, released his groundbreaking *Principia Mathematica*. This monumental work initiated the era of Newtonian, or classical, physics.
* **Paradigm Shift #3:** As the 20th century dawned, Albert Einstein, along with many others, proposed revolutionary concepts regarding the nature of matter and light. This marked the rise of quantum physics, a major branch of modern physics.
* **Paradigm Shift #4:** Contemporaneously with the rise of quantum physics, Einstein formulated his theories of special and general relativity. This spawned the field of relativistic physics, another key branch of modern physics.
If I were to compare physics to a creature, it wouldn't be a snake, shedding its skin as it grows. It would be a chambered nautilus, continually and elegantly enlarging its shell as it matures.
As physics advances, it doesn't discard its older concepts wholesale; it refines, reinterprets, and builds upon them. Consequently, modern physics retains echoes of even Aristotelian physics.
Take, for instance, Aristotle's inclusion of deities in his explanations of the natural world. In *Metaphysics*, he stated:
> "Our forebears, in the most ancient times, bequeathed to posterity a legend, cast in the guise of myth, that these celestial bodies [sun, moon, planets] are divine, and that the divine encompasses all of nature... This must be regarded as an inspired pronouncement."
Modern physics no longer incorporates explicit mentions of deities, yet in recent decades, it has increasingly embraced concepts that border on the metaphysical. As I'm about to illustrate, many of these concepts are more surreal than anything encountered in Aristotle's writings – or even the bizarre adventures of Alice in Wonderland.
**Entering the Quantum Labyrinth, Act I**
On June 9, 1905, the prestigious German science journal, *Annalen der Physik*, published a paper authored by a young, obscure physicist named Albert Einstein. Its title was technical and seemingly unremarkable: "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light."
It proved to be a watershed moment, the most transformative event in physics since the days of Aristotle and Newton. It was the moment physics embarked on a journey into the quantum labyrinth.
We call it quantum physics. “It was so epoch-making,” remarked the esteemed Isaac Asimov, “that virtually no physicist... could reconcile themselves to it.”
I don't have enough space here to provide a thorough explanation of quantum physics. And even if I did, I still wouldn't be capable of it.
No one can fully unravel the enigma of quantum physics. Even Richard Feynman, the late Nobel laureate, confessed in *The Character of Physical Law*: "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics."
Quantum physics is a work in progress. An unfinished symphony. A remarkably peculiar child still maturing.
Quantum physics offers tantalizing glimpses – but never a complete picture – of the microscopic oddities of the Quantum Labyrinth. It offers concrete equations but conflicting interpretations of their meaning.
It's like a lost coin hidden between the sofa cushions. The more you search for it, the more elusive it becomes.
That, in essence, is quantum physics.
Consider these five astounding claims made by quantum physics about the nature of reality – claims that push the boundaries of human comprehension. They defy expression, they defy empirical proof, they defy even the human capacity to imagine. Yet physicists embrace them with a conviction akin to Aristotle's belief in the gods.
**1. The Inhabitants of the Quantum Labyrinth Embody Paradox.**
As I mentioned earlier, light waves are inherently paradoxical. They exhibit characteristics of both particles and waves, which is akin to asserting that something is simultaneously both right and wrong.
No one can fully resolve this apparent logical contradiction, not even Einstein himself.
In 1954, a year before his passing, Einstein confessed to his longtime confidant, Michele Besso: "All my fifty years of conscious reflection have not brought me closer to answering the question, 'What are light quanta?' Nowadays every Tom, Dick, and Harry believes he knows, but he deceives himself."
This translogical strangeness doesn't end there.
Take, for instance, an electron. Physicists once believed it to be a simple, indivisible particle. But we now know that it, too, behaves like both a particle and a wave. This revelation is attributed to a French scholar named Louis-Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie.
These translogical entities aren't confined to a remote, esoteric quantum realm. They constitute the very fabric of our beings!
At your core, you are a walking, talking paradox. You are a translogical, metaphysical being, far more enigmatic than your mind can fully grasp.
**2. Some Inhabitants Can Teleport and Communicate Instantly.**
To ascend from the lobby of a skyscraper to the twentieth story, you need to use an elevator or climb the stairs. Even if you possessed superhuman abilities, you'd still need to traverse the space between floors.
In the Quantum Labyrinth, that isn't always the case. For instance, an atom is like a skyscraper with multiple stories. According to quantum physics, electrons can – and do – move from one story to another without traveling the intermediate floors. They essentially dematerialize from one level and instantly reappear on another.
Then there's the matter of communication. Normally, conveying a message from point A to point B takes time. Even so-called instant messaging requires a finite amount of time for transmission.
But in the Quantum Labyrinth, not necessarily. For example, an electron spins like a miniature top, either clockwise or counterclockwise. Imagine two electrons from the same atom being separated, like twins parted at birth, each possessing a certain spin. Measuring the spin of one electron instantly influences the spin of the other – as if the two electrons are communicating telepathically. This phenomenon is known as quantum entanglement.
Numerous experiments have confirmed quantum entanglement. In one recent study, scientists found that entangled photons separated by a record distance of 746 miles were still capable of instantaneous communication.
**3. Inhabitants Can Exist in Multiple Locations Concurrently.**
When I was in middle school, my science instructor explained that an atom is like a miniature solar system. At its center is a nucleus, comprised of neutrons and protons; circling the nucleus, like tiny planets, are electrons.
Our understanding of the atom has evolved considerably since then.
Quantum physics portrays an atom as being smeared out, like a giant wave. But not like an ocean wave. More like a wave of probability.
The likelihood of an atom being located at a particular spot is high. But... there's a chance, however minuscule, that it's somewhere else – perhaps even across the universe.
At any given moment, a typical atom is likely to be where classical physics dictates it should be. But you can't say with absolute certainty because it can be in several places simultaneously.
This holds true for any typical microscopic inhabitant, not just atoms. It has the peculiar characteristic of being spread out in more than one location.
Consider, for example, an electron confined within a potential well – like a marble trapped in a ditch. You might assume it's impossible for it to escape on its own, but it can. The reason? Although most of it is indeed confined within the well, a portion of it exists within and outside the well's boundaries.
I realize it sounds implausible – the Quantum Labyrinth is a bizarre place – but because of the electron's diffuse existence, there's a slight chance that, if you wait long enough, it will materialize outside the well, as if it were a specter passing through a solid wall. This remarkable occurrence is known as quantum tunneling.
**4. Experiments Are Never Truly Objective.**
Generally speaking, physicists do their utmost to eliminate biases and errors from their experiments. But according to quantum physics, objectivity is something of a myth.
The reason: Physicists and their tools inevitably interact with the phenomena they are observing. This interaction inescapably alters the outcome of the observation.
This interference is particularly pronounced when examining minute objects, such as photons and subatomic particles. But it ultimately affects all experiments.
Let me rephrase it.
You've probably heard the adage, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." It suggests that beauty has no intrinsic meaning independent of the observer. Beauty and its observer are inextricably linked.
Similarly, it can be argued that the entirety of the Quantum Labyrinth holds no meaning without observers to describe it. The Quantum Labyrinth and its observers – that's us! – are interwoven.
"The Universe could only come into being if someone observed it," proposes Sir Martin Rees. "The Universe exists because we are aware that it exists."
Objectivity, therefore, is an illusion.
You and I are inevitably part of our descriptions of the Quantum Labyrinth.
There is no escaping this quantum contamination.
Here's a tangible example. Imagine a spinning electron enclosed in an opaque box. According to classical physics, the electron is either spinning clockwise or counterclockwise; there is no intermediate state. Moreover, if you leave the electron undisturbed, its spin will remain constant.
Quantum physics presents a drastically different perspective. It suggests that an electron behaves like a wave of probability. It spins in both directions simultaneously.
However... the instant you open the box, the instant you interact with the electron, you force one of the possibilities to be fully realized. The electron you observe will spin in only one direction – either clockwise or counterclockwise – and not both.
Thus, you are not merely an impartial observer.
You are actively shaping the outcome.
You.
It's an undeniable truth that regardless of how meticulous or impartial you are, the results of your experiment will always be tainted by your participation.
"Science is no longer in the position of observer of nature," explained Werner Heisenberg, "but rather recognizes itself as part of the interplay between man and nature."
Here's another analogy: The personality of someone you've never met can be thought of as a cloud of possibilities. But the instant you meet, she crystallizes into one of those potentials.
Furthermore – and this is the crucial point – your interaction with her influences the course of your meeting. You affect how she behaves.
Someone else might have a different outcome. Another might elicit completely different behavior.
Therefore... coming back to the electron. When I open the box, I may or may not experience the same outcome as you. There's a fifty-fifty chance I will. And a fifty-fifty chance I'll get the opposite result.
Same electron. Same box. Different results.
If enough people open the box, the outcomes will even out to fifty-fifty. Half will see it spinning clockwise, the other half counterclockwise.
We call this intriguing phenomenon the quantum measurement problem. Why a *problem*? Because we don't really grasp how reality can be so subjective.
It's easy to understand how opinions are subjective. But physical reality?
"How do you transition from the nebulous, probabilistic reality of quantum mechanics, where things can be in multiple locations with different probabilities, to the single, definite reality we observe when we make a measurement?" questions Brian Greene, a Columbia University physicist. Answer? "We don't know."
It's a problem, alright.
**5. We Can Never Know Everything.**
Think about all the measurements you make in life. You weigh yourself on a scale. You measure your windows for new blinds. You precisely measure out the ingredients of a cake. You track your child’s growth.
For physicists, measurements are everything.
The temperature of the Earth. The mass of a glacier. The diameter of a satellite's orbit. The age of the universe. Physicists need to have exact measurements if they want to be published, believed by the public, earn funding and awards.
Back in the era of Aristotle and Newton, physicists believed that there were no limits to how accurate a measurement could be. They were confident that one day – with sufficient ingenuity, skill, and equipment – they could pinpoint every detail about the universe with perfect precision.
Then 1927 happened.
In that year, Werner Heisenberg published his uncertainty principle. It states that no matter how hard we try, no matter how clever or skilled we are, we can never fully understand everything about the universe.
It's difficult to discuss Heisenberg's uncertainty principle without referencing Gödel's incompleteness theorem. Both discoveries underscored the existence of insurmountable boundaries (in the scientific method and logic, respectively).
In L. Frank Baum's *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz*, a small wizard controlled Oz from behind a curtain. This is essentially what the uncertainty principle says about our Quantum Labyrinth.
It states that the innermost secrets of the universe are concealed behind a curtain of uncertainty. A curtain that physics, unlike Dorothy, can never draw aside – and that even our most acute intuition can only peek through with limited success.
Let me put it in technical terms.
Certain quantities, Heisenberg discovered, are linked in an unusual fashion. Two such pairings are momentum and location, and energy and time. Physicists call these conjugate variables, or incompatible observables.
The more accurately we measure one component of the pair, the less accurately we can measure the other. The Quantum Labyrinth is structured such that we can never determine both components with perfect accuracy.
Take, for instance, experiments with fast-moving helium nuclei, such as those found in cosmic rays. The better we measure its momentum, the less precise our ability to measure its position.
It's like a see-saw. The higher the accuracy of one measurable quantity, the lower the other. There's no escaping this constraint.
It's also like what videographers call a rack focus. When you have two subjects – one in the foreground and one in the background – and you focus on the front subject, the back subject blurs. And vice versa. You can never get both perfectly in focus.
It's not due to sloppiness or incompetence. It’s simply how the Quantum Labyrinth works, for reasons that may never be known.
**Entering the Quantum Labyrinth, Act II**
On September 26, 1905, *Annalen der Physik* – the same German journal that published Einstein's paper on quantum physics three months earlier – published his theory of special relativity. On this momentous day, the twenty-six-year-old phenom guided physicists even deeper into the depths of the Quantum Labyrinth.
Here are three surprising claims that Einstein's theory makes about the world we call home. All of them contradict both Aristotelian and Newtonian physics.
**1. Wonderland has Four Dimensions.**
Since the time of Aristotle, physicists had believed that the universe has just three dimensions of space: up/down, right/left, and forward/backward. These dimensions – denoted as x, y, and z – are readily described using conventional 3D geometry.
Special relativity, however, postulates that time is also a dimension, although it behaves very differently from the three spatial dimensions. It’s like saying men and women are both human, even though they may behave differently.
Physicists refer to the four dimensions collectively as spacetime and denote them as x, y, z, and t. Sometimes, they can be described using ordinary 4D geometry – but not always.
**2. Certain Superficial Aspects of the Quantum Labyrinth are Relative.**
Prior to Einstein, it was thought that distances, times, and masses were constant. It was expected that different observers would always agree, say, on the length of a foot, the duration of a minute, or the mass of a penny.
However, SR posits that distances, times, and masses are fluid – like a rubber band. The length of a foot, the duration of a minute, the mass of a penny all depend on your particular situation. Specifically, on your velocity relative to the thing being measured.
You don't experience living in a rubbery reality for a very good reason. These weird effects are only noticeable at massive speeds.
Some, especially those who like to obfuscate reality, have seized upon this discovery and twisted it. So let me be clear: Despite the revelations of special relativity, objective reality does exist. As you are about to see, even distance, time and mass must adhere to the immutable laws of physics.
Let me give you some concrete examples of what I mean.
First, find a plastic ruler and hold it in your hand. If it's well-made, it will be exactly twelve inches long.
Now imagine I drive by you at 60 mph holding an identical ruler. To me, your ruler will appear shorter than twelve inches. Not by much, mind you. At 60 mph, I'll see it as about 11.999999999999952 inches long.
Here's another example.
Use your smartphone's stopwatch to time a minute. If it's working correctly, the minute will be exactly sixty seconds.
Now imagine I zip past you at 60 mph with an identical stopwatch. To me, your stopwatch will appear to be running slower than mine. Measured by my watch, your minute will take 60.00000000000024 seconds.
One final example.
Weigh a shiny new penny (2.5% copper, 97.5% zinc). According to the US Mint, its mass is exactly 2.500 grams.
Now, once again, imagine I drive by at 60 mph. To me, the mass of your penny will appear greater than 2.500 grams—specifically, 2.50000000000001 grams.
You are likely shaking your head right now, thinking "One ruler cannot have two lengths! One minute cannot have two durations! One penny cannot have two masses!"
Actually, they can.
You just don't realize it.
"But c'mon!" you say. "Someone has to be wrong. You and I can't both be right! It's impossible!"
Welcome to the Quantum Labyrinth.
Welcome to your world.
In our strange, strange world, the length of a foot, the duration of a minute, and the mass of a penny are not objective truths. They are optical illusions. Like the facets of a hard diamond, they are superficial aspects of a deeper, objective reality.
**3. Light has a Sacred Status.**
We've already talked about this remarkable reality, but here I will give you a deeper understanding of it. But don’t worry, I won’t get too technical.
First, you must be mindful of the following objective truth: Speed is relative. Imagine you're speeding down the highway and a cop clocks you at 60 mph. To someone in the lane next to you also doing 60 mph, you are standing still – 0 mph because you are not moving relative to the other car.
So who's right? The cop or the other driver? Both! Because speed is relative, it depends on your frame of reference.
Speed is composed of distance and time, both of which are relative.
But now for the one shocking exception.
According to SR, the speed of light in a vacuum is *not* relative. Let me explain.
Suppose a photon flashes across your room. Holding a souped-up radar gun, you measure its speed at 299,792,458 meters per second, just as expected. (Let's ignore that your room is not a vacuum, but this doesn't affect what I'm about to explain.)
Now, what about someone zipping by at 1,000,000,000 mph? Here's the shocker: The photon will still seem to be travelling at 299,792,458 meters per second.
Unlike the speed of a car or anything else, the speed of light is absolute for everyone, everywhere, always. For reasons that we do not understand. It's a mystery.
One final thing about the puzzling nature of light: You and I can never accelerate to the speed of light, no matter how hard we try.
The harder we try, the more massive we become, making it more difficult to speed up. To paraphrase an old commercial, we can only cry out "Help! I'm overweight and I can't speed up!"
By the way, we physicists know that this phenomenon actually happens. Subatomic particles bloat in exactly this way in atom smashers as they accelerate towards the speed of light. We just don't understand the fundamental reason why the universe works this way.
**Entering the Quantum Labyrinth, Act III**
Think of gravity as a mysterious lover. You live with it every day, yet you know next to nothing about it.
Even Newton, who knew more about gravity than anyone else in his day, gave up and said "Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws, but whether this agent be material or immaterial is a question I have left to the consideration of my readers."
Centuries later, on November 25, 1915, Einstein claimed to crack the code. Standing before a class at the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, he announced that gravity is caused by dimples in the elastic fabric of spacetime.
Yes, dimples.
The sun creates a huge dimple, the way a circus elephant would on a rubber trampoline. Earth produces a smaller dimple. You and I make truly insignificant spacetime dimples.
Whenever you travel across a dimple, you naturally follow its contours. Because the dimple is invisible, you'll understandably blame this effect on an unseen force: gravity.
If you travel across a deep enough dimple, you'll fall in and never come back out. We call these dimples black holes, the Bermuda Triangles of outer space.
To explain all this weirdness, Einstein needed to use a geometry far more exotic than Euclid's. For help, he turned to friends who were mathematical virtuosos.
With their guidance, Einstein eventually found the right geometry: a 4D geometry invented in the 1850s by Bernhard Riemann.
Using Riemann's geometry, Einstein formulated his law of gravity:
You might hate math – lots of people do. But just for a moment, I invite you to see this equation as I do: as a work of art.
Its brushstrokes portray the beauty of a 4D reality strewn with dimples that cannot be seen, proven or fully imagined.
Remember Joe, the split-brain patient?
When shown a picture of a frying pan, he couldn't see it. The picture represented something invisible and beyond words.
But when Joe closed his eyes, he sketched a frying pan. It was an inner awareness that directed the pencil.
Einstein's equation is like Joe's sketch. It's the creation of an inner sense that opens our eyes to things we cannot say.
Viewed in this way, mathematics is an art form rather than a language. It's like filmmaking, composing music, sculpting and dancing.
Leonardo da Vinci, a hero of mine since boyhood, filled notebooks with beautiful drawings and beautiful equations. "Let no man who is not a Mathematician read the elements of my work," he said.
To me, Leonardo represents the quintessential high-scientist. Someone who saw Wonderland in all its magnificence.
**Beyond the Everyday**
The discoveries of modern physics are fascinating, but also far-out. Which might leave you wondering: Who cares?
Why should you care whether the mass of a penny is fixed or elastic? Whether the universe has three dimensions or four? Whether gravity is an invisible force or the consequence of some cosmic pothole? None of this will help you watch your weight, cope with your boss, or deal with death.
Perhaps it won't. But it does matter.
Actor Jim Carrey starred in a movie called *The Truman Show* about a man whose life has been broadcast on TV – all unbeknownst to him. His world appears normal. But one day, he starts noticing oddities that lead him to a shocking discovery: his world is a soundstage, surrounded by a vast Wonderland populated by things he'd never seen.
You are Truman.
Your everyday world is a bubble. A mundane reality that causes you to feel trapped, bored, even depressed.
Yet, if you know and understand modern physics, they are liberating. Thanks to these revelations, you realize that there is more to life than your everyday bubble.
You now realize that you are part of a Wonderland that exists within you. A Wonderland not even Lewis Carroll could have imagined.