Quantum Mechanics happens to be a pretty fun topic, so I’ve decided to explore it in this blog and some future ones.
In the last post, I talked about my own personal thoughts on the idea of probabilism and determinism. However, I hadn’t looked into it very far, so I decided to do that and come back to the subject.
The first thing is that there are multiple theories other than Bohmian mechanics and the standard probabilistic view of quantum mechanics, there are other ideas. For example, there is Superdeterminism. In order to understand this, we have to go into Bell’s theorem. In quantum mechanics, in order to determine certain measurements like the position of an atom or its momentum, we must create a waveform function. A waveform function uses imaginary numbers, or roots of -1, so in order to get a probability distribution for a certain measurement of an atom, we must square it. Once you square it, this creates a probability distribution. You can use this to find the most likely “true” measurement for an atom.
Bell’s theorem essentially states that within the motion of particles, there cannot be local hidden variables affecting the universe that we don’t know of. If we knew all the variables of a dice roll, we could determine exactly what number will be rolled even if it appears to be random. There could be two types of hidden variables: local and nonlocal. Local variables are variables that travel at a speed lower than the speed of light, and nonlocal variables are ones that can travel at a speed faster than the speed of light. This is important because Bell’s theorem assumes three things: Free choice, locality, and realism. Realism states that the outcome of a measurement is dependent on hidden variables. Free choice states that what the experimenters choose to measure is not determined by hidden variables, and locality states that hidden variables can only be slower than the speed of light.
Bell’s theorem, disproving the idea of local hidden variable, should theoretically disprove determinism. If the variables we have in our mathematical calculations are the only ones that exist, then the universe must be probabilistic. However, it only states that local variables don’t exist; it does not disprove the idea of nonlocal variables. This idea is often disregarded by physicists because it asserts something that we can’t necessarily prove and therefore is overcomplicating things. However, because it can’t be disproven, this is the idea of Superdeterminism. Everything is determined beforehand, but by variables faster than the speed of light.
This is another interesting way to think about the universe, but it is also deterministic. There is one way to think about the universe that isn’t really probabilistic or deterministic, which is the idea of branching realities, or a multiverse. However, I personally dislike it. If every event that had multiple possibilities had a universe for each one, then technically our own universe is deterministic. However, there are an innumerable number of atoms in the universe, and therefore there must be a universe for each one of those, and then for each of its possibilities. The number of universes would be so large it would be impossible to ever be comprehensible on a human scale. That’s why, despite it being an interesting idea, just doesn’t sit well with me. I feel like if we could prove all of these theories, that one would be the least likely to ever be proven.
I wonder if there are any other possibilities like this. I’ll have to look more into it in future blogs.