Life is but a dream (1).

A radical quantum hypothesis casts doubt on objective reality.

Interpreting dreams is an imperfect, highly subjective art, as Sigmund Freud, in his rare moments of humility, would surely have granted. Dreams are entirely private, first-person experiences that leave no traces beyond the dreamer's fallible memory.

And yet making sense of dreams, it occurs to me lately, is not wholly dissimilar from making sense of "reality", whatever that is. Yes, we all live in the same world. We can compare notes on what is happening and draw inferences, in a way impossible with dreams.

And yet your experiences of the world is unique to you. So is your interpretation of it, which depends on your prior beliefs, yearnings and aversions and on what matters to you. 

Science offers our best hope for achieving consensus about what happens. Scientists accumulate these fragments into a coherent story. After much haggling and second-guessing, scientists converge on a plausible narrative. Modern humans evolved from apelike creatures living in Africa millions of years ago.

As philosopher Michael Strevens points out in The Knowledge Machine, science resolves disputes by means of repeated observations and experiments. Strevens calls scientists' commitment to empirical data the "iron rule of explanation". Ideally, the iron rule produces durable, objectively true accounts of the world. But subjectivity is hard to expunge even in physics, the foundation on which science rests. Quantum mechanics, a mathematical model of matter at very small scales, is science's most rigorously tested theory. Countless experiments have confirmed it, as do computer chips, lasers and other technologies that exploit quantum effects.

Unfortunately, quantum mechanics defies common sense. For more than a century, physicists have tried to interpret the theory, to turn it into a coherent story, in vain. "Every competent physicist can 'do' quantum mechanics", a leading textbook says, "but the stories we tell ourselves about what we are doing are as various as the tales of Scheherazade and almost as implausible".

Many physicists ignore the puzzles posed by quantum mechanics. They take a practical, utilitarian attitude towards the theory, summed up by the admonition, "Shut up and calculate!" That is, forget about those quantum paradoxes and keep working on that quantum computer, which might make you rich.

.......to be contd. 

Tailpiece.

Got up a trifle after 6, the chores and was ready by a quarter to 10. Lasser, the contractor, had dropped by to assess the quantum of work on the roofing of 'The Quarterdeck' for applying two coats of Dr Fix it to prevent seepages during heavy rains. The work will take three days and I hope to kill it next week. He will give me the cost estimates by Monday. 

Washing machinex of bedlinen. 

Helped Lekha in watering the plants.