Quantum Language and the Migration of Scientific Concepts (The MIT Press)

337 Pages·2018·1.055 MB·

by  Jennifer Burwell

QUANTUM LANGUAGE AND THE MIGRATION
OF SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS

QUANTUM LANGUAGE AND THE MIGRATION
OF SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS
JENNIFER BURWELL
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or infor-
mation storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Bembo Std by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed
and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Burwell, Jennifer, author.
Title: Quantum language and the migration of scientific concepts /
Jennifer Burwell.
Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : The MIT Press,
[2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017028080| ISBN 9780262037556 (hardcover ;
alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Quantum theory--Philosophy. | Physics--
Philosophy. | Quantum theory in literature.
Classification: LCC QC174.13 .B874 2018 | DDC 530.1201/4--dc23 LC
record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017028080
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
for Ella and Maeve

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
1 EXPERIENCE, PERCEPTION, AND THE LIMITS OF LANGUAGE 27
2 THE PHYSICS OF VISUALITY, INTUITION, AND AESTHETICS 69
3 QUANTUM PARADIGMS IN LITERARY CRITICISM 125
4 NEW AND POST-NEW AGE APPROPRIATIONS 169
5 QUANTUM VERSUS NUCLEAR DISCOURSE 211
CONCLUSION 255
NOTES 265
BIBLIOGRAPHY 297
INDEX 317

INTRODUCTION
Almost a century after its main principles were established, quantum
physics remains one of the most conceptually elusive theoretical para-
digms in science—so elusive that even its original architects were con-
founded by the results that their calculations produced. It also remains
one of the most figuratively allusive paradigms, a fact that cannot be
separated from the baffling nature of its principles. The tenets of quan-
tum physics—and the strange phenomena that they describe—originate
in and are expressed most precisely by highly abstract algebraic equa-
tions. The main challenge posed by quantum phenomena does not lie,
however, in its mathematics; it lies instead in how these phenomena in
their very nature strain the limits of comprehension and representations:
electrons that behave sometimes like particles and sometimes like waves;
atomic systems that exist simultaneously in all possible states—until they
are observed; electrons that reveal their position only if their momentum
remains a mystery; and particles that exist at great distances from one
another but appear to “know” and respond to what each other is doing.
The counterintuitive nature of quantum theory—and especially its curi-
ous relationship to everyday experience and representation in language—
is the engine for a set of key questions that I address in this book. Why,
for instance, did these mathematically driven concepts compel their
founders to spend so much time reflecting upon ontological, epistemo-
logical, and linguistic concerns? What do quantum phenomena, consid-
ered in the context of the founders’ reflection and debates on how to
describe them, reveal about the relationship between everyday experi-
ence, perception, and language? How—and why—do quantum concepts
get taken up again fifty years after their formulation in cultural contexts
far removed from their origins in physics? What, for example, made