Quantum physicality

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Quantum physics has become the new handbag-dog accessory for actors and tv presenters.

You think I’m making this up. Here are some sources:
Courtney Love
Anne Hathaway
Takulah Riley
Anne-Marie Jordan, Actress.
Josie Lawrence
Flux Theatre Ensemble

and so on beyond the point at which I can bear to google any more.

All-time best example of the emerging celeb-quantum physics crossover must be this one: Peaches Geldof in conversation with Fearne Cotton. Kathryn Flett provides an accurate transcript there. The most appealing quote is

“I’m really interested in quantum physics. Which is how I got involved in, like, spirituality and stuff, and, like, the religious path I choose to go down, and stuff.”

An odd aspect of a professed interest in quantum physics is the way it’s so often part of a worldview that involves “spirituality and stuff”

Here’s a youtube video where the fruit-flavoured Geldof offspring explains her scientology beliefs.

I have to admit that I don’t understand quantum physics. In my school Physics lessons I couldn’t master Mechanics, ffs. So maybe quantum physics does prove that any bullshit crap must be true. (There’s a good example on Ben Goldacre’s BadScience.net)

However, lLooking into it any further to check this out would involve me in having to do hard maths. Which I already know I couldn’t manage. So I may have to yield and accept the Z-list-Celeb Model of quantum relativity as the long-awaited new Theory of Everything.

9 thoughts on “Quantum physicality”

  1. You don’t need hard maths to understand Quantum Mechanics, just like you don’t need organic chemistry to understand evolution. You just have to understand that your intuitions about big things such as rocks and trees don’t apply to very small things such as electrons. (Just like you have to understand that your intuition about things that people design and build don’t apply to evolved organisms.)

    There are a number of good books that you can read to get a better sense of QM, including (but not limited to) The Cosmic Code by Heinz R. Pagels, Quantum Reality by Nick Herbert, and Schrodingers Kittens by John Gribbin. None of these books require mastering any maths.

  3. Well, I’m a lifelong atheist and have always dismissed all religions as being stupid. But after hearing Peaches’s eloquent words, I’m, like, y’know, like sold on scientolo … zzzzzz.

  5. The Barefoot Bum should note that the tiny little difference between “barefootbum.blogspot.com” and “barefootbum.com” is the difference between reasoned anti-theism and hardcore pornography. Check your link. No worries, but try to fix it, eh?

    Anyway, when I was in my last year of undergrad and taking quantum mechanics, I read “The Dancing Wu Li Masters” by Gary Zukav. At that time, what amazed me most was that so much of the amazing reality of quantum mechanics was simply tossed aside in favor of vacuous bullshit by someone who did not really grasp any of the concepts of the theory. I can sum it up in a single mathematical sentence:

    Pretend QM << QM

  7. I just had a coffee-shop talk with a Christian who brought up quantum stuff. Fortunately I am a little versed but only enough to see through the jumps in logic.
    This was a great post — made me think. Thanx

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