Heisenberg's Hand of God

The Uncertainty Principle

Thank God for Heisenberg! If it wasn't for him and his famous uncertainty principle, we-like Einstein-would forever think that everything in the world is predictable and knowable. The aim of science as I understand it, is to know how the universe works and use this knowledge to solve our problems by predicting the behavior of natural systems. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is something that would turn this kind of approach on its head.

Technically, the uncertainty principle is concerned with the kinetics of quantum particles, but let's see what it means to the layman. Suppose you throw a cricket ball into the air. Keeping with the aim of science, you want to know where the ball will land, when and at what speed. For this, you should be able to know the ball's speed, direction and position at any point in time. The most direct way to do this is simply to 'see' the ball, but that would mean you will have to illuminate it by throwing some light on it. Now in case of a ball this would be a pretty straightforward process, but when you consider a subatomic particle such as an electron, it is not so. Because an electron is so small and light, that throwing some light on it would disturb it enough to alter its velocity. Stronger the light, more will be the disturbance and less accurate would be the velocity measurement. A weaker light on the other hand, will give you a better idea of the velocity; but weaker light means bad resolution i.e., a bad measurement of position. So the overall effect is that you can not know both the position and velocity of the electron accurately at the same time. This is the main concept of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.

Heisenberg's Hand of God

Although the uncertainty principle by itself looks dull, its implications in quantum mechanics make it truly fascinating. Because in quantum mechanics, small particles like electrons simply don't have fixed positions in space-time i.e, there is only a chance that a particle may be where it is supposed to be. And this chance, or probability, has a certain value which can be calculated. For example, if you calculate the position of an electron to be a particular point, there will be say, a 90% chance of it actually being there, but theoretically, for the remaining 10%, the electron can be anywhere in the universe! Of course, the probability of finding it at a certain place depends on how far the place is from the expected position. For example, an electron in one of the atoms in my brain cells would most probably be found orbiting that particular atom only. The chance of that same electron being found in your head is negligibly small and the chance of it ending up on Mars is still smaller. But the point is that the chance, however small, does exist. And the interesting thing is that although we can calculate the probability of a particle being somewhere, we can never say with certainty that it is there at a given point in time!

Magnification of Uncertainties

So in short, you can never really put a finger on something and say that it is definitely here or there, if that something is of the order of the size of a subatomic particle. Now consider you are playing a game of quantum billiards, which is billiards with quantum particles instead of cue balls. If you hit an electron with your cue stick, you would expect it to go ahead and hit another particle which will then hopefully sink into one of the pockets and get you a score. But what if the electron's position suddenly changes during its motion? What if it hits a different ball? And what if that other ball(particle) then moves in a still more unforeseen fashion? Remember that you can predict the probabilities of the different situations that may arise out of this, yet you have absolutely no way of knowing which of all the possible ones will actually take place. So in quantum pool, you would have no idea of what will happen each time your cue hits a ball!

Now as I said before, the chance of the individual particles ending up very far away from their expected positions is still very small, but when you consider the domino effect that could eventually take place even by small uncertainties, the end result could indeed be very surprising and unexpected. The possible combinations can be millions in number and you'd have no way of predicting exactly what will happen, when.

Miracle Mechanics

But then why isn't everything around us in a state of total chaos and unpredictability as I seem to suggest above? What has all this particle motion to do with the real world anyway? After all, we don't deal with electrons and photons everyday, do we? But of course we do! If you have seen The Matrix, you'll remember Morpheus saying this to Neo - "What is real? How do you define-real? If real is everything you can see, touch, hear and smell, then real is simply electrical impulses transmitted to your brain!" So in a way, everything you experience, feel, even imagine, has in fact everything to do with electrons! Now let's say if I, or someone else, could tamper with just a few of those electrons-change when and where they'll be- I could change the way you think, feel and react. I wouldn't have to do much, only a few electrons will be enough and the cascade that follows will take care of the rest; at least that's my theory. Tampering with electron motion would be an action at the micro level, but he effect on the macro level would be closer to being tangible- like say, inducing a thought or a sudden stroke of inspiration, perhaps. I don't know, I have never tried playing with electrons like that.

Or maybe I have. Maybe we all have. I mean, if it is true that electrons can affect thoughts, why can't the opposite also be true? Your brain is consuming 20 to 25 watts just to read this. With that kind of electrical activity, there would be millions of billions of electrons going here and there inside your skull. Now with such a huge number of particles, the probability of a large uncertainty taking place should increase to realistic or considerable levels; just like the chances of hitting a target will increase with the number of throws. More the number of particles, more the chances of occurrence of erratic behavior. So if one of those electrons indeed ends up in my brain and starts a cascade like a billiards ball, then would that mean that your thoughts are able to affect mine? Or if that electron goes some place else, could it affect the unfolding of an event - maybe one which you're thinking of right now?

Maybe God does not play dice after all. We do.

What I described above might one day show us how some unexplainable events we call 'miracles' and 'coincidences' actually happen. Or I might just be thinking too much, as usual. In any case, let me think and see if this takes us to a sensible conclusion. For now I think this much is enough. More of my strange ideas later.

Note: I have used a few analogies and approximations in this post, to make it easier to digest. For example, the uncertainty principle deals with position and momentum, unlike position and velocity as I have said. But a little consideration will show that it doesn't make a difference in the end. If you are new to the subject, rest assured that my explanation of the uncertainty principle is correct. The rest is as I said, a guess, although a well calculated one.