Reply to article by: Michael Gray <fleetg@newsguy.spam.com>
Date written: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 14:29:52 +1030
MsgID:<mdrt201h1m3o2flhg982gmqac96p7c4fgj@4ax.com>

I was enjoying it, and mainly agreeing with it, until this mentally
jarring claim stopped me in my tracks:

At this point in time, there is no difference between Alchemy and Quantum
Mechanics. Many modern day sciences started off as fringe sciences (alchemy led

That assertion couldn't be further from the truth if you gave it to
Dubya, Ashcroft, Wolfowitz, and Rumsfeld to re-write!

Quantum Mechanics, in particluar Quantum Electrodynamics is by a long
way the most successful scientific theory to date!

Define success.

Alchemy is not very successful.

Alchemy led to the developement of chemistry so it was very successful.

The vast sweep of its precise explanations, and its successful
predictions swamp any other theory for volume and accuracy.

Quantum Mechanics still cannot explain the dual-slit experiment -- one of the
key quantum experiments upon which all quantum mechanical theories reside.

The predictions of (QED) have been shown to be accurate to an
astounding level.
It does not make sense to even compare it with alchemy, let alone
claim that they are effectively the same thing!

Take a look at how physicists typically explain the dual-slit experiment, for
example, the ever-popular Copenhagen interpretation: "an unobserved quantum
entity exists in a 'coherent superposition' of all possible 'states' permitted
by it's 'wave function', but as an observer attempts to make a measurement
capable of distinguishing between those states, the wave function 'collapses'
and the quantum entity is forced into a single state". Nobody has ever seen a
wave function and by definition they cannot be seen to exist because they
"collapse", therefore the only way to know that a wavefunction exists, it to
pretend it does by blind faith. Superpositions, collapsing wavefunctions,
nonlocality, and other Quantum Mechanical (metaphysical) constructs don't
actually exist anywher except on paper.

Very much like Alchemy.

Do you understand Quantum Mechanics?

More than you will ever know.

The Sage

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