quantum rant

I used to get freaked out in a fun way over all that spooky-weird quantum mechanics stuff. Of course, one really needs to understand blackboard gibberish, needs to have been born with a mind hyper-flexing with math to properly fathom quantum mechanics. But not knowing stuff has never stopped me before from spouting off about stuff.

I think things have gone too far with quantum mechanics. It's a door that should not have even been opened. “That contradicts human curiosity and the compulsion to go wherever we go!” says probably everyone. I never pay much attention to “everyone,” anyway. So, I'm gonna rattle off my thoughts about this junk.

Some groovy practical things have come from exploring quantum theory (I can't think of any right now, but I'm sure there must be some nifty things). But at what cost? – parallel universes, string theories, the multiverse, zombie cats in boxes, vortexing brain tubules, freakin' wave-functions collapsing, photons giggling at us during their long-distance tangos...all kinds of wild shit. Guys and dolls in fancy universities are straining hard to make Einstein's General Theory of Relativity play nice with quarks and sub-quarks. That giant underground collider contraption in Europe sends pieces of reality zooming around and smashing (something tells me those physicists get off on the ultra-violence).

Some doors should remain closed. Because opening them turns us into quivering idiots.

It should be apparent to sentient beings that Quantum World is not Human World. Our brains ain't built for that. And what's on the other side of black holes has no bearing on our lives. Alice taught us that the Looking-Glass world is too damn freakish. The quantum world is where we stop and...whatever...is its own concern. We keep trying to punch holes into reality. To flush a god out into the open. We're so silly! The Big Bang? Who cares? Much better to leave some darkness intact. Darkness is where the mysteries live that allow us to make art. A good poem is worth more to the human spirit than a sack full of ancient cosmic radiation.

What's the motivation for funding research into all this exotic stuff? So technologies will be developed and turned into products for corporations. "4D television sets coming soon. Place your advance order!" So CEOs can build Taj Mahals on all five of their vacation homes.

Just because we don't know something doesn't mean we should. Hell...no one has a clue what consciousness is in the first place. And we're gonna use consciousness to figure out a theory of everything? Talk about the cart before the horse! “But maybe we'll finally understand what consciousness is when we break through the last quantum door or pull hard enough on 11th-dimensional strings.” And maybe pigs will build submarines and have fun zooming around under the ocean.

All I'm saying is this: we've seen enough to know that reality at the depth of quantum particles behaves in a way too bizarre for explanation...for understanding. We are pieces of reality. But reality itself will not allow pieces to see the overall image of the puzzle. That's my assertion, and it is fun to make it.