On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 1:52 PM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote:
> For example, an article on Leonardo Da Vinci is very much worth reading as > is one on quantum > physics and Marxist dialectics. > Oh great, so physics envy is not a monopoly of the neo-classicals after all. I clicked through to find this article on "quantum physics and Marxist dialectics" out of morbid curiosity. A word to the wise: if you are trying to construct a "Marxist theory" of some scientific discipline, please do not choose (a) the second law of thermodynamics, (b) Godel's incompleteness theorem, (c) quantum theory, or (d) Shannon's information theory. Or you may end up with nonsense like this: http://www.marxist.com/quantum-society.htm --------------------------------snip In opposition to these formally logical theorists a number of other quantum physicists have been busy proving that it is only through contradiction that the discoveries of quantum physics can be explained. An experiment carried out by physicist Shahriar Afshar suggests that we *are *able to measure light as a wave and a particle *at the same time*. Furthermore, the development of quantum computers is based upon matter being held in more than one state at the same time. While classical computers rely on electrical current to create bits that can either be on (1) or off (0), quantum computers will be able to create “qubits” that can store both 1 and 0 at the same time thus giving these computers vastly increased processing power. Finally, a phenomenon known as entanglement or ‘action at a distance’ suggests that particles that have interacted with each other become linked such that changing one invariably affects the other, no matter how far apart they are. The nature of and explanation for this effect are still not fully known. Without accepting that constant change, movement and contradiction is at the heart of all things, and that these things are interconnected, we cannot explain the workings of quantum computers or the phenomenon of entanglement. The discoveries of quantum physics can only be explained using the logic of dialectics.
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