The Quantum Bubble

How two key experiments invalidate quantum mechanics, and a new theory is ushering in the next paradigm of thought.

In a recent New York Times piece, Dr. Sean Carroll raises the issue that physicists don’t understand quantum mechanics, and aren’t particularly interested in the foundations of quantum theory.

students who demonstrate an interest in the topic are gently but firmly — maybe not so gently — steered away, sometimes with an admonishment to “Shut up and calculate!”

This was true to my experience studying physics in college. I felt a pressing need to understand what I was doing, but the professor had a script that closely followed the prevailing view.

The older professors who were interested in the foundations of theory were… frankly, in love with quantum, in a unhealthy way. Carroll calls for physicists to again take up the challenge of understanding quantum mechanics. But for this to be more than just lovingly doting over an old idea, we need to be willing to throw it out for something better.

I’m not sure quantum theoreticians are ready for that.

Carroll laments that our ability to move forward has been “stymied by a paucity of surprising experimental results,” but I wonder if he has been living…