Untangling Entanglement.
Vivek Sharan
Head of Marine-UAE | Marine Insurance | Ex-Mariner | Doctoral Student-Economics & Public Policy
Pic credit: Vijay Ramachandran
Quantum Entanglement is weird, mind-boggling, and very real!
But what is Real? Really!
Do you know that there are no colours? Do you also know that there is no sound?
Colours are our brain's interpretation of a light wave. Objectively speaking, there are no colours but only light waves of different wavelengths.
Sound is our brain's interpretation of the vibration of air/water. Objectively speaking, there is no sound except a vibration propagating as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium.
Our brain has evolved to differentiate between objects through different colours and movements through sound. But this is just one way to perceive Reality.
It may have been equally possible that we could have evolved into seeing sound and hearing light!
Quantum Physics is central to the question of what Reality is, and Entanglement is at the heart of Quantum physics.
Entanglement works at the subatomic level. When entangled, particles like electrons and photons can remain connected even when separated by vast distances. Even if you send two entangled photons at the two edges of a galaxy, they will continue to show a correlation between their Quantum states. The separated photons behave essentially like one unit.
2022's Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to John Clauser, Alain Aspect, and Anton Zeilinger for the pioneering development of quantum information systems, entangled photons, and the violation of Bell's inequalities.
A flock of birds, A school of fish, or A herd of animals can behave like one unit. Each component of a compounded system can be independent, yet collectively, the group can have a life of its own.
Extrapolating this to the nth level, the objective Reality has a life of its own while giving individuality to all its components.
Questions that come to mind are:
Another fascinating property of subatomic particles is their ability to stay in the state of SUPERPOSITION. This makes it very hard and restricts our ability to measure their quantum state. Measuring a quantum state affects the state itself; hence, two Quantum states can't be estimated perfectly. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle demonstrates this.
A few things can be noted here :
Then,
What can we really say with certainty?
Nothing!
From this point onwards, physics and philosophy start speaking the same language. Or maybe they are indeed the same. Who knows?
Like subatomic particles, the objective Reality that includes everything is in a constant state of SUPERPOSITION.
It has no colours, no sound, no features, and, most importantly, no attributes. Does it then sound like "Brahman" (ॐ), the highest universal principle, the ultimate Reality in the universe?
It does; indeed, physics, philosophy, and spirituality are all entangled and inseparable, like entangled photons!
THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT.
The poems of John Godfrey Saxe (1872)
A HINDOO FABLE.
I.
IT was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
II.
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me!—but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"
III.
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried: "Ho!—what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 't is mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"
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IV.
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"
V.
The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
"'T is clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"
VI.
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"
VII.
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"
VIII.
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
MORAL.
So, oft in theologic wars
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
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