From http://www.newswatch.org/May%20stories/Quantum%20confusion.htm }}>>Begin>>}} Quantum Confusion The media loves Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty theory, do they really understand what he said though? By Trevor Butterworth May 9, 2000 After a vaguely promising debut in 1998, The New York Times "Arts and Ideas" section has often gone wanting in the big ideas department; so it was a pleasant surprise to be arrested by a bold article on the new literary zeitgeist by Pultitzer winning Times' critic Michiko Kakutani on April 22. All was fine and perspicacious until readers hit the following paragraph: "This is a literature at home with relativity and the Heisenberg principle of uncertainty, a literature that embraces subjectivity and chance, and the blurring of lines between the real world and the virtual." A careful copy-editor, armed with either "Fashionable Nonsense," a popular book that debunked the scientific pretensions of the lit-crit crowd, or a basic understanding of physics, might have wondered just what that jumble of theory meant, in a literal sense. Does Kakutani mean relativism or physical relativity? After all, Einsteinian relativity is not even close to being a synonym for relativism or subjectivism, and the uncertainty principle only applies to the sub-atomic realm � not the everyday world of phenomenal facts. Furthermore, neither theory has been made fully commensurable with the other: Einstein being famously committed to a realist view of the universe and the quantum physicists (Copenhagen interpretation, school of) being commited to the idea that at the sub-atomic level, one can only speak of potentialities, among other things It's really hard to see how the new stars in the novel's firmament are inculcated with such deep theoretical issues, particularly as few, if any, were science majors. Now it could be argued that Kakutani was just swooshing oil and water around to extend the metaphorical range of science, and sure, don�t we all really know what she meant anyway (so stop being so literal minded); but such points aside, the fact of the matter is this: No scientific theory has been so eagerly adopted and so grievously abused by the media as the German physicist Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle (a.k.a. the indeterminacy principle). Here's John Podhoretz from the May 5 New York Post "Bush and his team have clearly grasped a central truth about the kinds of poll data that have made Republicans hesitant to go head to head with Democrats on these issues. They have understood the political application of the 'uncertainty principle' explained by physicist Werner Heisenberg. Polls are snapshots in time. Public opinion can change and does change when politicians enter the arena and alter the existing dynamic." Sounds a lot more profound than "politicians have the power to change and mold existing public opinion," doesn�t it? Here�s another snapshot of Heisenberg at work in Campaign 2000, this time from the March 12 Baltimore Sun: "On this day, the third layer of the bubble around candidates - the media -was omnipresent: cameras trained on his every move, long boom microphones picking up his every word. Inside the media bubble, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is in full flower: these observers certainly affect what is observed. Amid such scrutiny, it is virtually impossible for anyone to interact with the candidate in a natural, spontaneous way." Some might call this the art of �dealing with a press scrum out to expose your every gaff and misstep,� but then they wouldn�t be grasping the scientificity of the situation, would they? Were patience a virtue, one could keep on and digging up examples from Nexis, and adding anecdotes from book tours, conferences and lectures. Heisenberg has infiltrated journalistic thinking about journalism to an astonishing degree as an all-purpose, handy metaphor for the rather mundane point that sometimes the presence of an observer can influence those being observed. To put it better, it�s the MTV "Real World" effect � are they acting for the camera or behaving as they would if they weren�t on TV? In a related manner, Heisenberg�s uncertainty turns into a �scientific� explanation about why one apparently can�t be an objective observer, and so becomes a permanent �get-out-of-jail-free�card: "Don�t blame me for distorting the story, it�s the uncertainty principle!" As author Susan Orlean told the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Jan. 27, "I hate the pretend objectivity of some journalism - that omniscient, third-person voice. I spend so much time with my subjects that I'm bound to have an effect on anything I observe. It's a bit like the Heisenberg Principle in physics - so why not acknowledge it by putting myself in the story?" Trouble is, none of this relates to Heisenberg, or quantum mechanics or the uncertainty principle at all. At its most basic, the uncertainty principle states that you cannot precisely measure the dynamic attributes of a sub-atomic particle (notably, its position and velocity) at the same time. The more accurate the measurement of position, the less accurate the determination of velocity, and vice versa. Step back a little from this demand for absolute exactitude, and there is the appearance of definite position and definite velocity. Step back further into the realm of Newtonian physics and cars and trucks, and measurement can yield definite results (at least for all practical purposes). The mere fact of uncertainty in the real world is not predicated upon the existence of uncertainty at the quantum level; and what�s more, even uncertainty at the quantum level is limited to a series of calculable probabilities. That�s why Heisenberg himself noted the fascinating distinction between a quantum world of potentialities and a very real observable world of phenomenal facts. And that�s why scientists and philosophers are still arguing seventy years on about what it all really means, and how can these two world views be reconciled. Nevertheless, in the spirit of journalistci certainty, NewsWatch proposes one solution to a minor problem in this debate - let's call it, the quantum theory of journalism. That is, whenever journalists invoke Werner Heisenberg to �explain� media influence, there�s a strong probability that they don�t really understand what they�re talking about. 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