“Only the atoms and the blanks are real,” said the Democrats of ancient Greek philosophers. “Well, in fact, it’s a little more complicated than that. Atoms can become waves, voids are made up of fields, and everyone should always start using the word “quantum.” ”
Okay, he said only the first bit. Democritus pioneered Atomism. The idea is that everything in the universe can be divided into atoms, and that cannot be divided any further. But as we reached the 100th anniversary of the development of quantum mechanics in 1925, I thought somewhere in the corner of the multiverse, he and other ancient philosophers could have come up with a version of the theory thousands of years ago. If so, what does the world look like?
This article is part of a special series celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of quantum theory. Click here for details.
“The story may have started 2,400 years ago.” Bob KockeChief scientist at Quantum Computing Firm Quantinuum. For him, the point of divergence came when Parmenides, another ancient Greek philosopher, declared the universe to be singular and unchanging. He even believed that movement was impossible. Parmenides didn’t have it. Just because the arm was in one place doesn’t mean that it could be said that it had moved, he argued.
Parmenides influenced Democritus. He rejected the eccentric view that very reasonably – movement is impossible, but he embraced the unchanging idea of reality. His atomicism squared them…
Source: www.newscientist.com