Saturday, February 19, 2011

Fringe: Spooky Action at a Distance

In "6B," Walter described the elderly couple as occupying a state of "emotional quantum entanglement" and quoted Einstein's line about "spooky action at a distance" as justification.

Interestingly, Einstein was being derisive when he described quantum entanglement as spooky action at a distance. He found the very idea of quantum mechanics absurd and insisted that "God doesn't play dice with the universe."

Similarly, the most famous example of quantum entanglement (Schrodinger's Cat) was actually Schrodinger's effort to demonstrate the absurdity of applying the uncertainty principle to everyday objects like people or cats.

Ironically, both "spooky action at a distance" and "Schrodinger's cat" have become part of the lexicon of Quantum Mechanics despite Einstein and Schrodinger's derisive intent!