QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

parameter. Natural laws always remain unchanged, so the future and the past are treated as
equivalent. In principle, processes described by theory are reversible, which means that they take
place in the same way when the flow of time is reversed. 756 It is difficult to incorporate any kind
of qualitative change such as evolution into a world where future and past are equivalent, even
though, for example, R.G.Collingwood viewed historical understanding of the processes of
reality to be a central feature of the revolution that is currently taking place.
The first irreversible process encountered by physics was connected with thermal transfer: heat
moves from warmer to cooler locations until the difference in temperature between the two is
reduced to zero, so the process is not reversible. Non-recoverable, irreversible processes are
continuously being observed in chemistry, and investigations of highly unstable systems have
revealed that they can develop in unpredictable and random ways. In specific circumstances, the
degree of organisation of a system can increase as a result of interaction with its surroundings. 757
Evolution in living systems is a fact, which cannot be completely portrayed by using reversible
theories.
Einstein believed, as did Giordano Bruno and the majority of all natural scientists, that the world
is fundamentally eternal and unchanging. Surprisingly, however, time-dependent solutions were
discovered in the cosmological formulae of the general theory of relativity soon after it was
discovered. Even though Einstein fiercely resisted the introduction of irreversibility into physics,
he became, against his will, the father of the idea of a developing universe. 758 In quantum
mechanics, Schrödinger’s equation represented traditional reversible and deterministic thinking.
Hamilton’s operator defined the development of systems in time in an analogue manner as the
Hamilton function in classical mechanics. In measurement situations, however, it is generally
necessary to rely on statistical investigations, since the wave function has to be presented as a
superposition of eigenfunctions. By their very nature, the manipulation and measurement of
systems are irreversible processes. The world is changed as a consequence of the actions taken
by an observer. This results in a paradox: the Schrödinger equation cannot be tested without the
irreversible measurement which the equation is unable to describe. 759
755
Feynman 1992, 13, 59, 84. A thing is symmetrical if there is something you can do to it so that afterwards it
looks the same as it did before. Conservation laws are connected to fundamental (spatial) symmetries such as
translation, rotation and reflection in space. Most fundamental in modern physics are the internal symmetries e.g.
SU(3)xSI(2)xU(1).
756
Prigogine ja Stengers 1984, 11, 62.
757
Prigogine ja Stengers 1984, 12.
758
Prigogine and Stengers 1984, 15, 215, 294.
759
Prigogine and Stengers 1984, 61, 226-229.
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