Humanity couldn’t handle the truth of quantum theory a hundred years ago but can it today? The first barrier is the naive belief that what we see is real because we see it so, hence:
“Observers have to be made of matter…Our description of nature is thus severely biased: we describe it from the standpoint of matter.” (Schiller, 2009), p834.
We see matter all around us, and so assume the observer is also matter, but matter has no ability to experience a physical event, and quantum theory doesn’t say it does. It says that quantum waves interact, not matter, to cause physical events, so our materialism bias, that matter is everything, is just being applied to the observer. This same bias also produces other dogmas, such as:
“… the dogma that the concept of reality must be confined to objects in space and time…” (Zeh, 2004), p18.
Yet as shown in Chapter 2, the evidence suggests that space and time are generated constructs. We describe things in matter terms because that is what we see, but the dogma that only matter is real is the sort of assumption that science advances by querying, not sanctifying. Quantum theory implies another reality, of which Bohr said we must not speak, but since when was science about not asking questions? The second barrier is to deny that quantum states exist, so:
“Little has been said about the character of the unmeasured state. Since most of reality most of the time dwells in this unmeasured condition …the lack of such a description leaves the majority of the universe … shrouded in mystery.” (Herbert, 1985), p194.
If quantum states are real and only occasionally produce physical states, our universe exists mostly in the unmeasured state. Quantum waves spread until they interact in a physical event, then start to spread again, so by what logic is their instant collapse real? Surely reality is what is there most of the time? We see physical events but in quantum theory, they are far apart between a constant press of quantum events. It follows that quantum reality always exists but the physical reality we see doesn’t.
Equally if quantum waves cause physical reality, saying the unreal causes the real is reverse logic. If one thing causes another, surely reality is the cause not the effect? Why then is that something unseen causes what we see so hard to accept? It isn’t logic, as the logic of quantum theory is undeniable. Nor is it the physical evidence, as it again always supports quantum theory. The current denial of quantum reality is doctrinal not logical, based on faith not facts.
The reason seems to be that evolution has primed us to see what increases fitness, not truth:
“You may want the truth, but you don’t need the truth. Perceiving truth would drive our species extinct. You need simple icons that show you how to act to stay alive. Perception is not a window on objective reality. It is an interface that hides objective reality behind a veil of helpful icons.” (Hoffman, 2020).
We see what helps us survive not what is true, so the very evolution that grew us now opposes science, but wasn’t it always so? For thousands of years, we didn’t know that unseen bacteria cause disease, but now we do, thanks to science. When atoms were first proposed, Mach denied they existed because they were unseen, but today, we accept not only them but also invisible protons and neutrons, even quarks that can’t exist alone.
But when quantum theory says that reality is just possibilities, we say “Enough!” and turn away. That the answer to life, the universe, and everything is just a number is, it seems, a step too far. After two millennia of scientific struggle, the knowledge that we don’t see reality is still too much to bear. But if science is to progress, it must at some point face what Wheeler called the great smoky dragon.