Year: 2014

Interesting (2014) blog from Henry Mintzberg on (1980/90’s) Harvard MBA failings, echos my own (1992) MBA Dissertation.

A flexible learning organisation needs a rational model like a hole in the head.

What goes around comes around. Also put me in mind of (1920/30’s) Mary Parker-Follett.

Interesting and thorough piece in Nature on why basic scientific method of empirical falsification still matters to the integrity of physics however creative the hypothesising.

Of course (as the sole commenter so far says), there are plenty of other valuable kinds of knowledge and evidence, which also require careful reasoning. Some scientists may wish to claim redundancy of any other kind of philosophical thinking – but it wouldn’t be science. (Hat tip to Sabine Hossenfelder on Facebook.)

[Post Note – and quite a few articles responding to the post in Nature, also being collected by Sabine.]

Interesting analysis by Paul Mason of C4.
Not particularly original ideas, but good to see the whole position summarised readably:

Opec’s decision to go on pumping oil, in November, faced with collapsing demand, was designed to do exactly what has happened — sink the oil price to the point where only the big Gulf producers can break even, harming their competitors [including Russia] — and in the process sabotaging the expensive end of the US shale-oil industry.

What it does to Putin’s power base is scary of course.

Just a quickie to highlight for posterity a point I made earlier (and before).

Forget – “Collapse of the observed probability wave function.”

Think – “Collapse of the mythical abstract concept of objective reality.”

You may have heard that here first, but I’ve been piecing it together from the giants on whose shoulders I would that I stood. For example: now that we’ve buried his cat once and for all, could we please resurrect the good work of Erwin Schroedinger.

Interesting that Jim Al Khalili retweeted a linked review of his Life on the Edge from Nicola Davis in The Grauniad. Not exactly a glowing report, but I often feel the same, that the stack of assumptions and interpretations needed to support scientific “fact” at the extremes of fundamental physics are exactly that – a house of cards. (PS not seen any reference to the Schroedinger work “What is Life?” – a fine little book on the topic.)

Watched episode 1 of Jim Al-Khalili’s “The Secrets of Quantum Physics – Part 1 Einstein’s Nightmare” at last. (Mentioned related stories in a couple of previous posts.)

In synopsis – ‘cos I’m in a hurry as ever – everything about discoveries of quanta from Einstein on the photo-electric effect, the many forms of the ubiquitous dual-slit experiment(s), “spooky” action at a distance, EPR and the Einstein, Bohr (and Heisenberg) disagreements have been the stuff of popular science writing for some time (archetypically for me, Gribben and Charlesworth in cartoon form.) Even up to Bell’s inequality and the experiments on pairs of polarised electrons following separate paths. No mention of advanced or pilot waves and thankfully no mention of Shroedinger’s cat, despite numerous “open the box” opportunities. If that is unintelligible to you, then you need to watch Jim’s program and/or read his book.

Only weak point for me was that it is not made clear how and why the Bell card-pairs-game and the polarised-electron-pair experiment using Bell’s inequality does actually prove the Einstein-Bohr argument one way or the other. Bell’s inequality is stated without really explaining what it means?

BUT sure Einstein was wrong with his rigged-deck take on avoiding the conclusion of observer driven outcomes. He was of course right on a lot more. I always felt the concept of there even being a (predetermined) deck to be rigged was his point, the point being it’s a daft idea, like Shroedinger with his cat – to illustrate how mad – weird – the prevailing quantum concepts are when related to our common sense world. Thought experiments to demonstrate how inconceivably these metaphors could possibly reflect how reality really is. Which is the point.

Good that Jim clearly sees the ongoing weirdness as a problem needing sorting out. The fact this suggested some serious misunderstandings about the true nature of reality itself, exposed by Einstein’s refusal to agree with Bohr being ignored post-war in the Copenhagen drive to “shut-up and calculate” – QM works for (say) nuclear power and the electronics of the communications age – who cares? Conflicting opinions were simply “swept under the carpet”. Interesting that the hippy and eastern mysticism movement – that in fact led hippy physicists to the polarised-electron-pair experiment – is indeed a part of the story – a story about the nature of reality that is, not about any good or bad “science of the supernatural”. Looking forward to Part 2.

My take – the weirdeness is simply a consequence of misguided common sense about objects and objectivity. ie it’s not their “observation” that’s the problem, but their conceptualisation in the first place, which ultimately leads to them being set up to be observed. We reify into objects what is in fact more immediate pre-conceptual empirical experience – deliberately to make objects distinct from ourselves as subject. Science is based on objectivity, whereas reality really isn’t. I hope Jim recognises that’s a philosophical question and not a scientific problem, ie I’m not knocking the science. Science cannot know reality at these levels. As Jim says it is in some sense unknowable, unknowable to science that is.

Really good takeaways. Honest on the state of what is truly (not) known and understood at the QM level and seriously well done for not resorting to Schroedinger’s damn cat. Well done.

[Aside – no mention of De-Broglie-Bohm advance “pilot” waves – Jim mentioned in a tweet he had a preference for this view – over Copenhagen anyway.]

[Post Note : Even objects as large as molecules comprising 114 atoms (!) giving double slit interference signature. LiveScience via @cpwernham. Beware spammy site, checking secondary sources. Objects are not what they seem.]

[Post Post Note : And in response to comments Jim has blogged more explanation of what he glossed over about what Bell’s inequality said about Einstein, Good stuff. Even again, forced to choose, would side with Einstein. My point is, sure all authoritative science remains contingent, but some science has never got beyond being contentious. Good mention of the De-Broglie-Bohm alternative too. And sure too, a public TV programme is not a physics lecture, so difficult details have to be excused, but the key messages must remain honest.]

The paper referenced in the previous post is well worth a read, if you find probabilistic collapsing wave-functions, and the suggestion that thanks to quantum mechanics there is no actual single physical reality, too weird to actually believe. Einstein was right for knowing Bohr was wrong, even if he never cottoned onto De Broglie’s pilot wave model, later picked up by David Bohm. Chaotic and difficult to predict individual histories, sure, but deterministically so. May Shroedinger’s cat forever rest in peace never to be heard of again. (Must actually watch Jim’s series and read his book, to see where his beliefs lie.)

A century down the line, the standard, probabilistic formulation of quantum mechanics has been combined with Einstein’s theory of special relativity and developed into the Standard Model, an elaborate and precise description of most of the particles and forces in the universe. Acclimating to the weirdness of quantum mechanics has become a physicists’ rite of passage. The old, deterministic alternative is not mentioned in most textbooks; most people in the field haven’t heard of it. Sheldon Goldstein (*), a professor of mathematics, physics and philosophy at Rutgers University and a supporter of pilot-wave theory, blames the “preposterous” neglect of the theory on “decades of indoctrination.” At this stage, Goldstein and several others noted, researchers risk their careers by questioning quantum orthodoxy.

The key thing about the article is that it’s an empirical demonstration at human visible scale, using oil drops on water surface waves. Suck that up Copenhagen. Interesting that the cautiously informed responses are all about how “hard” the pilot-wave model is going to be to create all the mathematics needed to replace Copenhagen, but no suggestion that it’s demonstrably wrong.

Aside – I’m wondering if, like fluid mechanics, the practicalities will always be calculated and predicted using statistical approximations, ratios and scale factors determined from historical measurement. Tracking the real “particles” of fluid is always too complex and therefore performed computationally at “finite element” level with fluid properties based on the empirical factors – whether Roman water in pipes or 21st century aircraft in the air, maybe now for elementary particles in the ether.

[(*) First husband of Rebecca Goldstein cited previously as also being a supporter of Bohmian Mechanics.]

It’s all happening at once today. Prompted I guess by the first episode of Jim Al Khalili’s BBC4 series on Quantum Mechanics, the usual alternative theories are crawling out of the woodwork.

Not watched the episode yet, but judging by the Grauniad review we get the “Einstein was wrong” take and a bit of wave-particle duality so far – Feynman’s quantum physics in a nutshell “double-slit experiment”. Jim tweeted this morning receiving a link to Natalie Wolchover’s piece in Wired from back in June about the David Bohm interpretation of QM – basically an Einstein and Bohr were both wrong, take on things. Coincidentally mentioned by Rebecca Goldstein last month as her own preferred interpretation before she switched from physics to philosophy.

And talking of philosophy at the other end of the scale just yesterday we have Roberto Unger collaborating with Lee Smolin on anthropic mistakes in cosmological interpretations.

Two givens

Firstly, at the extremes of fundamental physics much is speculation, and the touch points with empirical reality few, indirect and incomplete. Yes, the maths work in given contexts and scales, but the explanatory understanding of reality – beyond doubtful metaphors – is a long way off.

And, secondly, physics needs philosophy to help sort out it’s relation to both reality and humanity.

Related – but more general (medical) science in this case: the recurring agenda of mine: when is speculative (or interested) science newsworthy? The tag of “science” allows so much hyped crap to be touted as worthwhile knowledge, when it’s really churn in the processes of science – speculative in both senses, doubtful, but worth a shot if it justifies the funds.