Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science - My Sehir

SCHRÖDINGER’S GRAVE 133where he would become director and remain until his retirementin 1955, when he returned to Austria.Generations of physics students equate quantum physicswith Schrödinger’s wave equation, treating the wave functionas a probability distribution. The amplitude of the wave functionat any point represents the probability of finding an electronthere. The solution to Schrödinger’s equation for an electronin some sort of potential well is an inevitable final examproblem in elementary quantum mechanics.Now suppose that you actually detect the electron with yourinstruments. There is no longer any uncertainty about its location.The act of observing the electron is said to “collapse” thewave function to that point. To some scientists the collapse ofthe wave function made it seem as if the conscious act of observationactually created the thing observed, turning a fuzzyprobability function into a thing—even though Schrödingerhimself had ridiculed this interpretation.Everyone agreed that the Schrödinger equation worked, andthere were millions of important calculations waiting to be done.It was a time of great opportunity, translating classical descriptionsof nature into the language of quantum physics—even ifthere was some disagreement about how to explain it. Whynot just agree that nature behaves as if reality depends on theconscious act of an observer and get on with it? Inevitablyhowever, scientists began to omit the phrase “as if” from theirdiscussions. Why bother, everything was working fine?Some took it much farther, arguing that since events on anatomic scale are affected by the act of observation, and sinceeverything in the universe is made of atoms, we should not besurprised to find our thoughts influencing events on the macroscopicscale in which our lives are lived. Those with a spiritualbent began talking about “universal consciousness.”This was a godsend for the paranormal community. It providedscientific cover for every New Age fantasy from telepathyto feng shui. New Age technobabble was sprinkled with “quantumnon-locality,” “entanglement,” and “collapsing” wave functions.The CIA would spend millions on “remote viewing,” and