From: mk_thisisit
The world we experience daily is composed of large objects, which we term the “classical world” [00:00:45]. However, all matter is fundamentally built from smaller objects, eventually reaching the level of atoms and elementary particles [00:01:06]. These microscopic constituents exist in a “quantum world” [00:00:45] that operates completely differently from our familiar macroscopic reality [00:02:05].
Understanding the Quantum World
Atoms are infinitesimally small [00:01:34]. The sheer number of atoms in a human body is described as “terrifying” [00:01:38]. Due to their minute size, atoms do not behave like everyday objects such as trams or ping-pong balls [00:01:58]; they inhabit an “alien” world that we have not experienced [00:02:16].
Quantum mechanics is defined as a theory of our observations of this microworld [00:02:50]. All scientific theories are considered valid if they align with our observations, whether sensory or extended through experimental devices [00:02:58]. A key distinction of the quantum world is that the act of observation profoundly changes our knowledge, and often the state, of the observed object [00:03:30], [00:03:41]. For instance, the photons used to observe quantum phenomena can disrupt what is being viewed [00:03:47]. This is unlike observing macroscopic objects, where the act of observation has a negligible effect [00:03:15].
Quantum Teleportation
Within the microworld, teleportation can occur [00:06:01]. However, teleportation is not a natural phenomenon; it is an artificial process, much like a telephone [00:07:06]. It is crucial to understand that teleportation does not involve the transfer of matter; instead, it is the transfer of a “soul” or state [00:08:12], [00:12:24]. For teleportation to work, an object in the target location must already be present to receive the transformed state [00:08:27], [00:12:13].
While elementary particles can be teleported [00:07:13], teleporting a more complex object like a human being is considered beyond the technical capabilities of the universe [00:07:50]. This is because such a process would require an infinitely dimensional Bell measurement [00:31:45], demanding resources probably equivalent to the entire universe [00:34:58]. For example, teleporting a glass of atoms would require capturing an astronomically large number of possible Bell states, roughly (10^26)^2 [00:11:00], [00:11:38].
Nobel Prize and Quantum Information
The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, which honored pioneering experiments in quantum information, including teleportation, recognized studies on entangled states that demonstrate the violation of Bell’s inequality [00:21:26], [00:21:29], [00:21:50].
One significant achievement in this field, stemming from collaborations in the early 1990s, involved demonstrating that photons emitted independently from distinct but similar sources could be forced to interfere [00:23:03]. This breakthrough in understanding how to manipulate quantum states led to the possibility of “entanglement exchange” [00:23:19], where separate entangled photons become fully entangled through an experiment [00:23:33].
A famous photograph from 1994, known as “the most beautiful photo in the history of physics,” illustrates parametrically converted photons that are entangled by polarization [00:54:01], [00:54:40]. This phenomenon, where photon pairs jump out of a crystal, shows perfect symmetry: if a green photon appears at one point, its “brother” will appear at a symmetrical location [00:55:03], [00:55:09]. This additional property of parametric conversion was discovered and subsequently utilized for teleportation experiments [00:55:47], [00:56:16].
Implications and Broader Context
Entanglement is not just a theoretical concept; it occurs ubiquitously in nature. Even the basic state of the simplest atom, hydrogen (consisting of a proton and an electron), is an entangled state [00:44:02].
The development of quantum theories has often faced skepticism. For instance, Bell’s theorem, which highlights the fundamental gap between phenomena explainable by classical mechanics (plus relativity) and those explainable by quantum mechanics [00:41:41], [00:41:47], was initially met with resistance [00:42:21]. Despite being told not to pursue it because “everything has already been done,” the profound intellectual shock of the theory motivated continued research [00:42:39], [00:42:48]. Later, the work on Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) correlations [00:43:13] demonstrated that with three or more observers and particles, phenomena become so “mad” that any interference observed is inherently quantum [00:43:29], [00:43:40].
While these advanced concepts of entanglement enhance our understanding of the world [00:18:31] and the early universe [00:18:36], they do not necessarily bring us closer to answering metaphysical questions like “what was before the Big Bang?” [00:43:50] or “why do the laws of physics exist?” [00:45:01]. From an atheistic perspective, the existence of life and civilization is seen as a series of fortunate coincidences within the vastness of the cosmos, rather than a predetermined necessity [00:45:34], [00:47:04].
The progress in quantum physics continues to reveal the counter-intuitive and complex nature of reality at its most fundamental level.