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From: brooks@lll-crg.ARPA (Eugene D. Brooks III)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Re: Intuition and aesthetics in physics
Message-ID: <655@lll-crg.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 22-Jun-85 15:42:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: lll-crg.655
Posted: Sat Jun 22 15:42:17 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Jun-85 00:29:50 EDT
References: <2825@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Lawrence Livermore Labs, CRG group
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> I am not trying to say that quantum physics is wrong.  What I am saying is
> that we need someone that can formulate a quantum theory that agrees
> completely with experiment and also appeals to our sense of intuition.
> Now it is quite possible that we may have to somehow modify our intuition,
> but I have no idea how you would do that.  Does anyone have any idea how
> our sense of intuition is developed?  It must start with our earliest
> learning experiences, if not sooner.  The last is not meant to be a joke.

The development of intuition does indeed start with your earliest learning
experiences.  To say that it starts earlier is going a little too far out
on that limb.  Unfortunately we live in an everyday world that corresponds
to the classical limit of QM.  If our eyes were just a little more sensitive
the average person would be able to see some consequences of QM every night.
It is interesting to consider what this would have done for the development of
QM.  Just as the development of intuition for classical physics requires a
past experience of living in a world that is adequately described by classical
mechanics the development of intuition for QM requires living in a world that
requires QM for a correct description.  The average person simply never gets
this experience.  The physicist working in an area of modern physics does, and
develops the required intuition.  We don't need to develop a formulation of
quantum theory that agrees to a classical sense of intuition.  The person who
wants to understand QM needs to live in the QM world for a while to develop
the required intuition for that world.