As we've seen before in the Light Fantastic documentary series, light presents some of the greatest mysteries in all of science. The following clip (from the horrendous movie What the Bleep Do We Know) does a surprisingly good job of explaining in simple terms the classic work on the single and double slit experiments involving photons, which led to the utterly strange conclusion that light can behave like particles and waves, depending on what you're looking for. This idea is appropriately referred to as particle-wave duality.I wouldn't jump to any conclusions about the 'consciousness' of the universe, or about the purposiveness of nature, or any bizarre ideas like that, the way the movie does, but it is definitely weird that light would act both as particles and waves, and that this behavior seems to be observer-dependent.
And if you want more weirdness, to learn about quantum mechanics and the curiosity of Schrödinger's cat.
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For the best explanation of quantum mechanics on the net: http://lesswrong.com/lw/r5/the_quantum_physics_sequence/
ReplyDelete“An electron is not a billiard ball, and it’s not a crest and trough moving through a pool of water. An electron is a mathematically different sort of entity, all the time and under all circumstances, and it has to be accepted on its own terms.
The universe is not wavering between using particles and waves, unable to make up its mind. It’s only human intuitions about QM that swap back and forth. The intuitions we have for billiard balls, and the intuitions we have for crests and troughs in a pool of water, both look sort of like they’re applicable to electrons, at different times and under different circumstances. But the truth is that both intuitions simply aren’t applicable.”
"I am not going to tell you that quantum mechanics is weird, bizarre, confusing, or alien. QM is counterintuitive, but that is a problem with your intuitions, not a problem with quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics has been around for billions of years before the Sun coalesced from interstellar hydrogen. Quantum mechanics was here before you were, and if you have a problem with that, you are the one who needs to change. QM sure won’t. There are no surprising facts, only models that are surprised by facts; and if a model is surprised by the facts, it is no credit to that model."