Hi everyone,
Carlo Rovelli is one of the world’s most widely read science writers, and he is back with a wonderful new book called On the Equality of All Things: Lessons on Physics and Philosophy. With stunning readability, Rovelli argues that quantum mechanics is best understood relationally.
On large scales, we are happy to accept that measurements are relative. Are you moving right now? Yes and no. Perhaps you are on a train, in which case you are moving relative to the Earth. But if a man on the train tells his child to “sit still”, he is not expecting that child to jump out of the window. There is no objective “speed”.
The quantum world, Rovelli tells us, is a lot like this. There is no fact to be known about any particular quantum state except relative to something else. This explains the “observer effect”: why is it that a quantum state should change just because we observe it? On this view, it doesn’t. There is just no “objective” state to speak of except as relative to something, or someone, else.
There is an astonishing agreement between Rovelli’s work and the ancient Buddhist philosophy of Nāgārjuna, who we covered in a recent episode. There are also implications for philosophical ideas including a metaphysical “first cause”, and whether there is more to the universe than “what it does”.
I absolutely loved speaking with Dr. Rovelli, and hope you enjoy his insights just as much.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - The Ongoing Revolution in Science
3:31 - Interpreting the Quantum World
16:54 - Can a Person Be in Superposition?
25:44 - Everything is Relative
30:22 - The Relational Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
40:48 - Are Quantum Objects Actually There?
50:14 - Is There a Smallness Bias?
01:05:36 - Is Reality Grounded?
01:12:05 - Does Relativism Kill Morality?
01:21:03 - Buddhism and Quantum Mechanics
