Dr. Ron Garret was an AI and robotics researcher at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab for fifteen years before taking a year off to work at Google in June of 2000. He was the lead engineer on the first release of AdWords, and the original author of the Google Translation Console. Since leaving Google he has started a new career as an entrepreneur, angel investor and filmmaker. He has co-founded three startups, invested in a dozen others, and made a feature-length documentary about homelessness.
Richard Feynman once famously quipped that no one understands quantum mechanics, and popular accounts continue to promulgate the view that QM is an intractable mystery (probably because that helps to sell books). QM is certainly unintuitive, but the idea that no one understands it is far from the truth. In fact, QM is no more difficult to understand than relativity. The problem is that the vast majority of popular accounts of QM are simply flat-out wrong. They are based on the so-called Copenhagen interpretation of QM, which has been thoroughly discredited for decades. It turns out that if Copenhagen were true then it would be possible to communicate faster than light, and hence send signals backwards in time. This talk describes an alternative interpretation based on quantum information theory (QIT) which is consistent with current scientific knowledge. It turns out that there is a simple intuition that makes almost all quantum mysteries simply evaporate, and replaces them with an easily understood (albeit strange) insight: measurement and entanglement are the same physical phenomenon, and you don’t really exist.
From the comments: “This is all entangled with the 30+ year-old Princeton Noosphere Project, which proves mass human attention sways random to quantum … but too few (in fact, only one, apparently, from the 6k+ comments) know.” https://noosphere.princeton.edu/
The presentation titled “The Quantum Conspiracy: What Popularizers of QM Don’t Want You to Know” was delivered by Ron Garret at a Google TechTalk on January 6, 2011. Ron Garret, who has a background as an AI and robotics researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and has also worked at Google, discusses common misunderstandings and oversimplifications related to quantum mechanics (QM) that are often perpetuated by popular science communication.
### Key Points of the Talk
– **Complexity of Quantum Mechanics**: Garret highlights how quantum mechanics is frequently portrayed as an intractably mysterious or incomprehensible subject, a notion that he challenges. He suggests that while QM is unintuitive, it is not beyond understanding.
– **Misrepresentations**: The talk addresses how certain concepts within quantum mechanics are misrepresented or exaggerated for sensationalism in popular media and books. This includes the idea that observing a quantum system invariably alters its state (a simplification of the observer effect) and the treatment of concepts like entanglement and superposition as almost mystical phenomena.
– **Underlying Reality**: Garret discusses the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics and the debates around the interpretation of its mathematical formalism in terms of physical reality. He touches upon the Copenhagen interpretation and other interpretations that attempt to reconcile the counterintuitive aspects of QM with a coherent worldview.
– **Educational and Philosophical Implications**: The presentation also delves into the implications of how quantum mechanics is taught and understood, arguing for a more nuanced and accurate portrayal of the theory to avoid confusion and misinterpretation.
### Reception and Criticism
– The talk has been received with interest by audiences curious about quantum mechanics beyond the popularized myths. However, as with any scientific discussion that challenges widely held perceptions, it has also faced scrutiny and debate regarding its interpretations and conclusions.
### Conclusion
Ron Garret’s “The Quantum Conspiracy” serves as a call to critically examine how complex scientific theories are communicated to the public. It encourages a move away from sensationalism towards a more informed and nuanced understanding of quantum mechanics, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing scientific fact from fiction and interpretation from exaggeration.
