The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot Read Free Book Online

science?
    One physicist who was
troubled by Bohr's assertions was Einstein. Despite the role Einstein had
played in the founding of quantum theory, he was not at all happy with the
course the fledgling science had taken. He found Bohr's conclusion that a
particle's properties don't exist until they are observed particularly
objectionable because, when combined with another of quantum physics's
findings, it implied that subatomic particles were interconnected in a way
Einstein simply didn't believe was possible.
    That finding was the
discovery that some subatomic processes result in the creation of a pair of
particles with identical or closely related properties. Consider an extremely
unstable atom physicists call positronium. The positronium atom is composed of
an electron and a positron (a positron is an electron with a positive charge).
Because a positron is the electron's antiparticle opposite, the two eventually
annihilate each other and decay into two quanta of light or “photons” traveling
in opposite directions (the capacity to shapeshift from one kind of particle to
another is just another of a quantum's abilities). According to quantum physics
no matter how far apart the photons travel, when they are measured they will
always be found to have identical angles of polarization. (Polarization
is the spatial orientation of the photon's wavelike aspect as it travels away
from its point of origin.)
    In 1935 Einstein and his
colleagues Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen published a now famous paper
entitled “Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered
Complete?” In it they explained why the existence of such twin particles proved
that Bohr could not possibly be correct. As they pointed out, two such
particles, say, the photons emitted when positronium decays, could be produced
and allowed to travel a significant distance apart * . Then they could be
intercepted and their angles of polarization measured. If the polarizations are
measured at precisely the same moment and are found to be identical, as quantum
physics predicts, and if Bohr was correct and properties such as polarization
do not coalesce into existence until they are observed or measured, this
suggests that somehow the two photons must be instantaneously communicating
with each other so they know which angle of polarization to agree upon. The
problem is that according to Einstein's special theory of relativity, nothing
can travel faster than the speed of light, let alone travel instantaneously,
for that would be tantamount to breaking the time barrier and would open the
door on all kinds of unacceptable paradoxes. Einstein and his colleagues were
convinced that no “reasonable definition” of reality would permit such
faster-than-light interconnections to exist, and therefore Bohr had to be
wrong. Their argument is now known as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, or
EPR paradox for short.
    Bohr remained
unperturbed by Einstein's argument. Rather than believing that some kind
of faster-than-light communication was taking place, he offered another
explanation. If subatomic particles do not exist until they are observed, then
one could no longer think of them as independent “things.” Thus Einstein was
basing his argument on an error when he viewed twin particles as separate. They
were part of an indivisible system, and it was meaningless to think of them
otherwise.
    In time most physicists
sided with Bohr and became content that his interpretation was correct. One
factor that contributed to Bohr's triumph was that quantum physics had proved
so spectacularly successful in predicting phenomena, few physicists were
willing even to consider the possibility that it might be faulty in some way.
In addition, when Einstein and his colleagues first made their proposal about
twin particles, technical and other reasons prevented such an experiment from
actually being performed. This made it even easier to put out of mind. This was
curious,