Quantum woo
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Revision as of 20:55, 18 August 2010
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Quantum woo is the description for a phenomenon where many crazy beliefs are justified by an obfuscatory reference to quantum physics. Usually this is a focus on some sort of "energy field", "probability wave", or "wave-particle duality" that magically turns thoughts into something tangible that can directly affect the universe. This concept is pushed notably by such things as the Law of Attraction or Quantum healing. Several individuals have turned quantum woo into a career, such as Deepak Chopra, who often presents ill-defined concepts of quantum physics as proof for God and other magical thinking.
When an idea seems too crazy to believe, the proponent often makes an appeal to quantum physics as the explanation. This is a New Age version of God of the gaps.
Proponents of quantum woo are affected by the interaction of neural-energy and their natural bozon field, which results in the creation of one moron and the decay of two neurons. The moron has a half-life of 42 years.
Contents |
History
The New Age fascination with quantum mechanics seems to date to the mid to late 1970s and the books The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav [1] and The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra [2], both of which were received poorly by the physics community [3], but embraced by those who needed an all-purpose explanation for their woo; as a result, quantum woo is invoked by alties and woo-pushers as much as Nikola Tesla is by crackpot inventors. Popular culture movies such as The Secret and What the Bleep Do We Know? have also appealed to such concepts. Some of the less credible Neopagan authors, including Silver Ravenwolf, have begun doing the same thing.
Pseudoscience
The root of the issue is most likely an attempt to piggy-back on the success and legitimacy of science by claiming quack ideas are rooted in accepted concepts in physics. Since most people have never studied quantum physics they do not understand why these sham ideas are a perversion of it - in fact, this relies on people thinking that quantum mechanics is "too hard" or "only for scientists" in order for the scams to work and stop people questioning them.
People do, however, recognize that quantum physics says that nanoscale reality is very different from what we know, and perhaps some pop science authors can take some blame for this. Concepts such as "non-locality" or "quantum probability waves" or "uncertainty principle" have become social memes of a kind where people inherently recognize that something "strange" is going on. Practitioners of fraudulent and silly ideas can tap into this feeling of mystery to push their sham concepts. Ie:
- Quantum Flux[4],
- Quantum Stirwand[5]
- Quantum Therapy[6]
- Quantum healing
- Quantum biofeedback
- Shoo!Tag
Real science
If you want to read a good book on quantum physics, scienceblogger Chad Orzel recently published a very accessible book called How To Teach Physics To Your Dog. Way better than anything Deepak Chopra might write.
For a popular science overview, check this New Scientist article.[7]
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ The Dancing Wu Li Masters (William Morrow & Co., 1979, ISBN 0553249142)
- ↑ The Tao of Physics (Shambhala Publications, 1975, ISBN 1570625190)
- ↑ Reviewer Jeremy Bernstein of the New Yorker Magazine, quoted by Martin Gardner in a 1979 review for Newsday, described Zukav's and Capra's physics by saying "A physicist reading these books might feel like someone on a familiar street who finds that all the old houses have suddenly turned mauve."
- ↑ http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=229
- ↑ http://www.quantumagewater.eu/contents/en-us/d1.html
- ↑ http://www.quantumtherapy.net/
- ↑ http://www.newscientist.com/special/seven-wonders-of-the-quantum-world