The strangeness of modern physics has sparked several popular books--such as The Tao of Physics--that explore its affinity with Eastern mysticism. But the founders of quantum mechanics were educated in the classical traditions of Western civilization and Western philosophy. In Nature Loves to Hide, physicist Shimon Malin takes readers on a fascinating tour of quantum theory--one that turns to Western philosophical thought to clarify this strange yet inescapable explanation of reality. Malin translates quantum mechanics into plain English, explaining its origins (...) and workings against the backdrop of the famous debate between Niels Bohr and the skeptical Albert Einstein. Then he moves on to build a philosophical framework that can account for the quantum nature of reality. He shows, for instance, how Platonic and Neoplatonic thought resonates with quantum theory. He draws out the linkage between the concepts of Neoplatonism and the more recent process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. The universe, Whitehead wrote, is an organic whole, composed not of lifeless objects, but "elementary experiences." Beginning with Whitehead's insight, Malin shows how this concept of "throbs of experience" expresses quantum reality, with its subatomic uncertainties, its constituents that are waves and also particles, its emphasis on acts of measurement. Once any educated person could explain the universe as a vast Newtonian web of cause and effect, but since quantum theory, reality again appears to be richer and more mysterious than we had thought. Writing with broad humanistic insight and deep knowledge of science, and using delightful conversations with fictional astronauts Peter and Julie to explain more difficult concepts, Shimon Malin offers a profound new understanding of the nature of reality--one that shows a deep continuity with aspects of our Western philosophical tradition going back 2500 years, and that feels more deeply satisfying, and truer, than the clockwork universe of Newton. (shrink)

Certain properties of the Bell-type correlations and, in particular, the impossibility of using them to transmit signals faster than light, are investigated from the point of view of the conceptual structure of quantum mechanics and of Whitehead's process philosophy. The collapses of quantum states are shown to correspond to perspectives of different frames of reference on a Whiteheadian process of self-creation of actual entities. The analysis suggests a fundamental limitation on the capacity to describe the propagation of influences among the (...) results of measurements at space-like separation. It is further shown that, if Whitehead's framework is modified in a specific way, it accounts very well for the apparent existence of superluminal influences, and for the impossibility of using them for superluminal communication. (shrink)

In a previous article it was shown that in general quantum states represent perspectives on the potentialities of quantum systems, rather than the potentialities themselves. In the present paper the following questions are investigated in the context of this result: (1) How do quantum states which undergo collapse transform under pure translations? (2) Under what conditions do quantum states represent the potentialities themselves? Two alternatives are presented in response to the first question: (1) Quantum states are scalars under translations. (2) (...) The collapse of a quantum state propagates between frames of reference at the speed of light. The advantages and disadvantages of the two alternatives are discussed. The response to the second question is shown to depend on the chosen alternative. In addition, the second alternative is shown to lead to a consistent view of quantum states as “potential perspectives on potentialities.”. (shrink)

The collapse of quantum states is analyzed in terms of a breakdown into two generic phases: Phase I, in which the field of potentialities that the quantum state represents undergoes a discontinuous and unpredictable change into one of the base states which corresponds to the measurement performed, and phase II, in which a transition from the level of potentialities to the level of actualities takes place. Phase I is discussed in relation to a comment about collapse, made by Dirac in (...) conversation with the author, “Nature makes a choice.” An analysis of phase II leads to the suggestion that it occurs only through and as an act of experience. This postulate is shown to elucidate basic questions regarding the interpretation of quantum mechanics, such as the elusive demarcation line between the classical and quantum domains, and the controversy of the ontological vs. epistemological interpretation of quantum mechanics. (shrink)