Quantum Mechanics is Not a Science!

This is the title of a chapter in the web page of the creator of modern Stochastic Electrodynamics, Trevor Marshall. It is hard to disagree with this conclusion of the eminent scientist, mostly after one reads the arguments. With variations, these arguments have been presented many times as flaws of the Quantum Mechanics, although not with such a radical task as its elimination from among Sciences. It is our opinion that the whole source of this state of the case stays in the mode of description of the quantum mechanical systems. In Marshall’s words:

We often use the label “mechanical” as a synonym for “physical”, but this is a dangerous, indeed erroneous, identification, which, throughout most of the 20th century, has led to a sterile debate about the relative virtues of Classical Mechanics and Quantum Mechanics. The fact is that no physical system is adequately described by a mechanical model, be it “classical” or “quantum”; that is why I have claimed that Quantum mechanics is not science. I would claim that an adequate description, and hence an adequate theoretical modeling, requires always the recognition that every dynamical system exists within an environment, and this means that, in addition to the dynamical variables, normally finite in number, internal to the system, there are an infinite number of stochastic environmental variables.

That’s it! This disease is not typical for Quantum Mechanics, but for the whole Science. From this point of view even Classical Mechanics is not a Science. May be this is the reason why Marshall’s arguments are not taken seriously into consideration.

What can be done? Perhaps it is the time to recognize that even in Classical Mechanics, the time is not at our disposal but at the disposal of the environment in which the described system is embedded. This fact offers indeed a fair scenario for the stochastic approach of any problem, even that of measurements. Perhaps it is the time to recognize that, if the Classical and Quantum Mechanics describe simple physical systems in their isolation with a fair amount of success, a fair amount of truth must pervade the descriptions. It is probably the time to put together the descriptions in a rational way. Or perhaps it is the time to realize that the simple systems we describe classically or quantum-mechanically are part of an environment, and to see specifically what part of their description can be properly charged with the relation to that environment.

Our point is that only after a theory is constructed, which takes explicitly into consideration the results of critical examinations of all the terms involved in the description of a physical system, are we in the position of declaring that a certain human endeavor is not a Science. By then, though, our declaration might appear as futile!

2 Responses to “Quantum Mechanics is Not a Science!”

  1. johndixon1234 on April 3rd, 2008 at 5:46 am

    The only thing I figured out, is that you will have a headache after reading this unreal stuff. Nothing interesting!

  2. I will not, because I hadn’t! But I guess there is a very good cause for hope…

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