Uncertainty, Dice, Einstein
Albert Einstein,
despite being a founder of quantum mechanics, never liked the theory. One
particular aspect of it rankled him. But first, some context. Since Newton,
physics had been exact. F = ma. No ambiguity. As more and more laws were
discovered with similar exactitude, people became convinced that the universe
worked like clockwork. Precise laws governed everything.
Quantum mechanics
overturned the clockwork universe. By stating that uncertainty is inherent
to nature. Not because we don’t know enough details. Not because our
measurement systems have limitations. But because that is just how
nature is. (At the tiniest of tiniest levels. At the bigger levels we
experience, Newtonian physics still rules). Einstein hated this
uncertainty-is-inherent-to-nature idea, and it is captured in his famous line:
“God
does not play dice.”
He felt that natural
laws could not possibly be like the throw of dice, with its inherent
randomness and probabilities.
In the mega hit
movie, Oppenheimer, there are a lot of great dialogs. Some of them are
about Einstein and his hated uncertainty. At one point, Lewis Strauss asks
Oppenheimer:
“You
know, I've always wondered why you didn't involve him (Einstein) in the
Manhattan Project. Greatest scientific mind of our time.”
To which
Oppenheimer snaps back sharply:
“Of
his time.”
Though the bomb
was a combo of Einstein’s famous equation (E = mc2) and the
principles of quantum mechanics, the man was old by then, and seemed well past
his prime. He was chasing wild theories in physics, more for their elegance
than any connection to reality.
As the Manhattan
Project got closer to building the first atomic bomb, there was a nagging fear
among the scientists. Could the atomic bomb set off a chain reaction that
spread across the entire atmosphere and destroy the entire world? On that
topic, there is this exchange in the movie:
Leslie Groves:
Are you saying that there's a chance that when we push that button... we
destroy the world?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: The chances are near zero...
Groves:
Near zero?
Oppenheimer:
What do you want from theory alone?
Groves:
Zero would be nice!
Oppenheimer then
talks of this risk (the world blowing up) with Einstein. Einstein’s smug
response (in this fictional conversation) fits perfectly with his view on
uncertainty in quantum mechanics:
“So here we are, hmm? Lost in your quantum world of probabilities, and needing certainty.”
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